The 20thAmerica Recycles Day,a nonprofit initiative

By Sara

为了不让垃圾影响环境，让更多的人参与到垃圾回收活动中，美国政府煞费苦心。

“The time has come when man can no longer continue using the land,sea and air as his ‘trash basket’,” a New York Times article said in 1966.“He must find ways to cycle his wastes,both solid and liquid,back into the economy.”

It was one of our first front-page articles to address the urgent need to deal with household waste.

The report was based on a National Academy of Sciences study sent to Lyndon B.Johnson’s White House.It came as cheap,plastic goods were entering the daily lives of Americans and leaving as garbage.

We have come a long way.Today is the 20thAmerica Recycles Day,a nonprofit initiative.

Last year,1.9 million Americans participated,organizers said,and more than 61 million pounds of recyclables were collected.

But there’s much work still to be done.A third of U.S.household waste still ends up in landfills.

Sweden could show the way.In 1975,its recycling rate was about on par with America’s now,but last year,only 0.7 percent of its waste ended up in landfills.Sweden even imports waste to use as a source of energy.

“时候到了，人类不能再继续把土地、大海和空气当成他的‘垃圾篮’，”1966年，《纽约时报》上的一篇文章写道。“他必须找到办法来回收他的固体和液体废弃品，让它们回到经济中。”

这是我们的头版最早谈论处理家庭废品迫切需求的文章之一。

这篇报道是基于国家科学院寄给林登·B.约翰逊政府的一份研究报告写成的。当时，越来越多廉价的塑料制品正在进入美国人的日常生活，最后成为垃圾。

我们走了一条很长的路。今天是美国资源回收日的20周年纪念日，这是一个非盈利的企划。

组织者称，去年有190万美国人参与了这个活动，一共收集了6，100万磅（约合2.8吨）的可回收物。

但需要做的事情还有很多。美国家庭制造的垃圾中三分之一最后仍然送到了垃圾填埋场。

瑞典做出了示范。1975年，该国的回收率大约和今日的美国相当，但到去年，其废品总量中仅0.7%最后留在了垃圾填埋场。瑞典甚至还进口废品，将它们用作能源。