减少节日期间的包装浪费

减少节日期间的包装浪费

You don't have to strive for zero waste perfection. Every effort to reduce unnecessary paper and plastic waste is worthwhile.

你不必追求零浪费的完美。所有减少不必要的纸张和塑料浪费的努力都是值得的。

Giving and receiving gifts is one of the great pleasures of the holiday season, but that pleasure is somewhat reduced when you behold the pile of packaging waste that's left behind. And this year, in the midst of America's Great Recycling Crisis, the residual packaging waste is a bigger deal than ever.

送礼物和收礼物是节日最大的乐趣之一，但当你看到剩下的一堆包装垃圾时，这种乐趣就有所减少了。而今年，在美国巨大的回收危机中，包装垃圾的残留比以往任何时候都要严重。

CC BY 2.0. frankieleon – Christmas morning aftermath

As we've written before on TreeHugger, China closed its doors to plastic waste imports in January 2011. Up until then it had taken 70 percent of the United States' plastic waste and two-thirds of the UK's. Even though the U.S. had ample warning of the impending change, it failed to build additional recycling infrastructure or to launch waste-reduction campaigns or to pressure manufacturers to come up with better packaging designs – just a few of the many things it could have done to cope with this enormous problem. As a result, the recycling situation is in a state of chaos.

正如我们之前在环保博客上所写的，中国在2011年1月关闭了塑料垃圾进口的大门。在此之前，美国70%的塑料垃圾和英国三分之二的塑料垃圾都去到中国。虽然美国有充足的警告即将发生的变化,它未能构建额外的回收设施或启动执行减少废弃物活动或向制造商施压，让他们想出更好的包装设计——这只是解决这个巨大问题所能做的众多事情中的几件。因此，回收情况处于混乱状态。

These issues, which are big enough on a day-to-day basis, are intensified during the holidays, when people are shopping and consuming more than ever, particularly online. UPS predicts it will deliver 800 million packages this holiday season, up from 762 million last year at this time. If FedEx's numbers match those from last year, it will deliver 400 million. That's a whole lot of cardboard boxes, plastic bags, and packing peanuts.

这些问题在日常生活中已经足够大了，但在节假日期间，人们的购物和消费比以往任何时候都要多，尤其是在网上。联合包裹服务公司预计，今年假日季将递送8亿个包裹，高于去年同期的7.62亿个。如果联邦快递的数据与去年持平，它将递送4亿件货物。那是一大堆纸板箱、塑料袋和包装的东西。

Lamenting the lack of recycling infrastructure is not going to change the unfortunate fact that our society is not set up to handle this level of waste right now. But knowing that, we have a clear responsibility to minimize this waste as best we can, and tackling it on a personal level is all we can do.

哀叹回收基础设施的缺乏并不能改变一个不幸的事实，那就是我们的社会现在没有建立起来处理这种程度的垃圾。但知道这一点，我们有明确的责任尽量减少这种浪费，在个人层面上解决它是我们所能做的。

I urge you to make a point of avoiding unnecessary packaging when shopping for and wrapping holiday gifts. You can do this in a number of ways.

我强烈建议你在购买和包装节日礼物时避免不必要的包装。您可以通过多种方式实现这一点。

– Make your own presents, using materials you already have.

-用你已有的材料自己制作礼物。

– Buy presents loose, without outer packaging, and refuse any additional bags or boxes.

–购买散装礼物，没有外包装，并拒绝任何额外的袋子或盒子。

– Buy second-hand presents from thrift stores, local swap sites, or antique shops. These always come free from packaging.

-从旧货店、当地的交换网站或古董店购买二手礼物。这些东西都是没有包装的。

– Leave surplus packaging at the store – whatever you don't need in the case of a return. Send a message to the brand that you don't support their packaging design.

-把多余的包装留在店里-任何你不需要的东西，以防退货。向品牌传达你不支持他们的包装设计的信息。

– When shopping online, inquire about packaging prior to placing an order. Support companies whose shipping bags and boxes are plastic-free and fully recyclable.

-网上购物时，下单前先询问包装。支持公司的运输袋和箱子是无塑料和完全可回收利用。

– Use non-salvageable paper and cardboard as fire starter.

-使用不可回收的纸张及硬纸板作为起火工具。

– Consider not wrapping presents, or just wrapping the kids' presents. Create a new gift-giving model where the giver presents an unwrapped gift to the recipient.

-考虑不包装礼物，或者只是包装孩子的礼物。创建一种新的送礼模式，即送礼者向收礼者赠送未包装的礼物。

It's not going to solve the recycling crisis overnight, but neither will improving our recycling infrastructure. What's needed more than that is a dramatic shift in the way we shop and handle our goods, always moving toward less packaging.

它不会在一夜之间解决回收危机，也不会改善我们的回收基础设施。我们更需要的是在购物和处理商品的方式上有一个戏剧性的转变，总是朝着减少包装的方向发展。