People didn't use to throw things away. They used to mend their clothes and reused them until they wore
out. When they bought things, they used to carry shopping baskets. But now we don't reuse things well and
more rubbish has been produced. We throw away 25 million tones of waste in our dustbins (垃圾箱) every
year. That means one family throw away about one thousand kilos of waste.
We have a strong reason to take it as a serious problem! The fact is that lots of rubbish we throw away
could be reused or recycled (回收利用). The so-called rubbish isn't really rubbish.
The UK is one of the worst recyclers in Europe. In other words, in the UK, they're recycling only about
8% of their everyday waste. That's much less than many other countries. Germany recycles 10%, while
Japan recycles 40%. The govemment has set a goal of recycling 30% of their everyday waste by the year
2010. But it looks that it is not easy to reach it. As we know, some habits are difficult to change and some
collection plans are expensive to carry out.
At present, the movement called Recycle Now in the UK tries to change that situation. The Top designer
(设计师) Oliver Heath is a strong fan of the movement. In 2005 he designed the first home built completeiy
from recycled things, including metal cans and glass bottles. "It always makes me excited when I make good
use of those recycled things," he said, " Maybe in the near future, you can also make something from recycled
computer printers, plastic bags, bottle tops or CDs." When his story was reported on TV, more and more
people begin to try his ideas.
Some local (地方的) govemments have set up recycling centres where it's easy for families to take their
empty bottles and old newspapers. Instead of throwing away the so-called rubbish, some families start doing
more about it.
With the effort of the whole country, we are happy to see some progress in some places in the UK.
1. Do people produce more rubbish than before?
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2. Why does the writer think rubbish is a serious problem?
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3. Which country recycles more than 10%, Cermany or Japan?
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4. How does Oliver Heath feel when he turns recycled things into something useful?
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5. What conclusion (结论) can you get about the recycling work in the UK?
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