1 . How to Properly Recycle Your Paper and Cardboard
If you receive pizza deliveries or packages regularly, you probably have a pile of empty boxes sitting somewhere in your house.
According to the University of Southern Indiana, one billion trees’ worth of paper is thrown in the trash annually — and that’s just in the US. I spoke with some recycling experts and here’s what I found out about the right way to recycle paper and cardboard.
Before you bring the cardboard to your nearest recycling center or put it in a bin for pickup, break the boxes down so that they’re lying flat.
| A．This helps make more room in the bin. |
| B．It helps protect the other materials in the bin. |
| C．There’s a right way to recycle your paper and cardboard. |
| D．Therefore it’s important that we make sure to recycle as much as we can. |
| E．However, it is not completely impossible to recycle contaminated boxes. |
| F．While you may think you can recycle any cardboard and paper, that’s not the case. |
| G．The same goes for the shiny wrapping paper you thought would be fine to put into the paper recycling. |
2 . Garbage sorting (分类) has become a hot topic around China, especially after Shanghai began carrying out a regulation (规章) on July 1.
Beijing has been expected to do the same. At present the regulation gives garbage sorting responsibilities to government departments, property management groups and other organizations. It also gives rules for companies, explaining how they’re responsible for waste collection, transportation and treatment. Citizens are free of responsibilities for the moment.
The long-awaited revision will soon change the situation. “Taking out the trash without sorting it properly will be illegal,” said Sun Xinjun, director of the Beijing Commission of Urban Management. In Shanghai, violators (违背者) are now fined up to 200 yuan for trash-sorting violations. “The maximum fine in Beijing will not be less than that,” he said.
The Beijing city government first promoted garbage sorting in 2009. Authorities have since called on citizens to sort their household waste into four types—recyclable waste, kitchen trash, dangerous waste and others , and leave it in a colored dustbin or trash can. Blue-colored dustbins are for recyclable items, green for kitchen trash, red for dangerous materials and grey for other waste.
To promote the awareness of garbage sorting and expand the base of participants, authorities have employed workers to help citizens. With intelligent devices, those who throw in recyclable waste at given places will be rewarded with bonus points, which can be used to buy daily goods. At some communities, there are no color-coded dustbins. Instead, a scheduled garbage collection service is offered to help improve the environment. In other communities, workers offer a door-to-door service to collect recyclable or kitchen waste.
Beijing Environmental Sanitation Engineering Group has been promoting new garbage sorting facilities such as recycling cabinets and smart kitchen waste trash cans since 2016, Xinhua News Agency reported.
1. Which of the following shouldn’t be thrown into a blue dustbin?| A．Coke cans. | B．Thrown-away batteries. |
| C．Used books. | D．Broken iron pots. |
| A．citizens are not responsible for garbage sorting in Beijing now |
| B．recyclable waste like newspapers should be thrown in green dustbins. |
| C．people sorting recyclable waste will be rewarded in Beijing |
| D．Shanghai carried out garbage sorting later than Beijing |
| A．An Example in Garbage Sorting in Shanghai |
| B．Action to Be Taken to Sort Garbage in Shanghai |
| C．New Garbage Sorting Regulation in Beijing |
| D．Present Garbage Collection in Beijing |
| A．A fashion magazine. | B．A science book. |
| C．A newspaper. | D．A government report. |
3 . If you live in Shanghai, you might have to take a "lesson" in sorting garbage, as the city recently introduced new garbage-sorting regulations. It's now required that people should sort garbage into four categories, namely recyclable, harmful, dry and wet waste. However, if people fail to sort their garbage properly, they can be fined up to 200 yuan. More cities are introducing similar regulations, following the practice in Shanghai. By the end of 2020, garbage-sorting systems will have been built in 46 major Chinese cities, including Beijing and Shenzhen, reported People's Daily.
According to a study by the Policy Research Center for Environment and Economy, under the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, over 90 percent of the public believe that garbage sorting is important for the protection of the environment. However, garbage sorting is still a big problem in China. Only 30 percent of participants said they think they are adequately sorting their trash, the study noted.
According to Xinhua News Agency, it's partly because many people lack the willingness to sort their own waste, In the past. Some previous garbage regulations didn't give clear fines for people who failed to sort garbage. "It's a must to have a legal guarantee to promote garbage sorting." Liu Jianguo, a professor from Tsinghua University, told China Daily. He also added "the importance of the new regulations in Shanghai is to change the past voluntary action into compulsory action for everyone.
Aside from China, many other foreign countries have also introduced garbage-sorting regulations. In Japan, waste sorting has become a basic survival skill, reported Xinhua. There is a fixed time for disposal of each kind of garbage and littering can result in high fines and even jail time. In Germany too, people are asked to sort waste into specific categories, reported HuffPost. For example, in Berlin, people have yellow bins for plastic and metals and blue bins for paper and cardboard.
1. What can we learn from paragraph 1?| A．All the cities use the same regulations as Shanghai. |
| B．Shanghai works as a pioneer in garbage sorting. |
| C．Poisonous waste belongs to four categories in sorting. |
| D．People will be fined not less than 200 yuan. |
| A．Not all the public attach importance to garbage sorting. |
| B．Garbage-sorting system have been built in 46 major cities. |
| C．People may be put in prison because of littering in Germany. |
| D．People aren't fined clearly if they fail to sort garbage now. |
| A．The sorting action should be changed from compulsory to voluntary. |
| B．He thinks highly of the legal regulations in garbage sorting. |
| C．There is a growing concern over garbage sorting worldwide. |
| D．Legal guarantee is a must to promote garbage sorting. |
| A．Regulations Are of Great Importance |
| B．Shanghai Puts Garbage-sorting Into Practice |
| C．Cities Get Serious About Waste |
| D．Garbage Is Hard to Recycle Appropriately |
4 . Most foreigners who come to Japan for the first time are often surprised and sometimes complicated by the very systematic and accurate separation and disposal of garbage in the Japanese recycling system. Each city has its own rules, so you have to be careful but, in general, the rules are pretty similar.
The designated garbage bags are classified into colors (each city has different colors) and are sold in supermarkets and convenience stores.
Garbage collection dates, collection areas, and collection rules differ depending on the areas.
Using the 3 Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) is highly encouraged.
The trash collection time varies, but it can be anything from 8:00 am to 10:00 am. Make sure to take out the trash before the scheduled time, or you might miss it and have to wait another week or so.
| A．If something can be reused, then reuse it. |
| B．Your garbage might be someone’s treasure. |
| C．It will give you a sense of pride for being in Japan. |
| D．You can get up very early or take it out the night before. |
| E．There is a specific fee for throwing away some oversized garbage. |
| F．This article is a guide of rules about garbage disposal in Japan. |
| G．There is usually a guide showing on which days the trash is collected. |
