1 . Not much trash and almost no plastic actually gets recycled. About a third of U.S. garbage gets recycled, according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s most recent estimate. The rest goes to landfills, which release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and pollute their surroundings.

To make recycling easier, many U.S. cities don’t ask Americans to separate paper, glass, metal and plastic. ‘They just ask people to put anything recyclable into one bin and let waste plants do the sorting. But waste plants don’t catch everything. AI is now an essential tool for the world’s waste management leaders. Greyparrot, a tech company has already installed more than l00 AI trash spotters in about 50 sorting facilities.

Greyparrot’s device is, basically, a set of visual and infrared (红外线的) cameras hooked up to a computer, which monitors trash as it passes by on a conveyor belt and labels it under 70 categories, from loose bottle caps to books to aluminum cans. Waste plants could connect these AI systems to sorting robots to help them separate trash from recyclables more accurately. They could also use the AI as a quality control system to measure how well they’re sorting trash from recyclables. That could help plant managers adjust their production lines to cover more recyclables, or cheek that a bundle of recyclables is free of pollutants, which would allow them to sell at a higher price.

In the next few years, some recycling companies plan to retrofit (改良) thousands of material- recovery facilities with Al trash - spotting tools. Of these companies, Bollegraaf has built thousands of these facilities, including 340 in North America, accounting for a majority of the recovery plants in the world.

The trash-spotting computers could one day help regulators punish companies that produce tsunamis of non - recyclable packaging because the AI systems are so accurate that they can identify the brands on individual items. Putting the AI tools in thousands of waste plants can raise recycling percentage. If the needle can be moved by even 5 to 10 percent, that would be a phenomenal outcome for greenhouse gas emissions and environmental impact.

2 . Did you buy too much bread before heading out for a holiday? Did you give up the vegetables that are going bad?

In an effort to help eco-conscious consumers, a Geneva nonprofit is speeding up its plan of street-side, free-access public refrigerators that restaurateurs, at-home cooks and others can use to give away food that’s about to go bad. It’s part of a bigger effort by communities in Switzerland and other European countries to do their part for the environment while helping to cut down on food waste.

The nonprofit Free-Go has placed refrigerators and shelves in Geneva where passersby can get fruit, vegetables, bread and other perishables(易变质食品) to take home for free.The program costs about $40,000 to run each year and enjoys the support from the city government. It began a year ago with a single fridge outside a community center in western Geneva and it now has four fridges, strategically placed around town. A fifth one is planned before year’s end.

Free-Go is experimenting with scheduled pickups at apartment buildings to make it easier for residents(居民) to participate in the program. It has also set up a“hotline”that restaurateurs can use to call for the collection of unused food. Free-Go says giver s of food from the private sector, such as restaurants, must make a promise to ensure the given food is safe to eat.

Free-Go says about 1 billion tons of food go to waste every year around the world—using up energy and other resources in the farming and transportation process. Similar food-sharing activities are in place in the capital, Bern, after the idea was imported from Germany.

According to Foodsharing.de, a community group in Germany that started more than a decade ago, more than a half-million people in Germany, Switzerland and Austria have made “the food-sharing initiative an international movement”and have helped save 83 million tons of food from going to waste.

4 . Students at Eindhoven University of Technology didn’t just want to build a car that wouldn’t pollute the air; they wanted to create one that could actually clean it up.

The college team has just exhibited a battery-powered car that absorbs CO₂. Their car, called the Zem, is equipped with a special filter (过滤器) that cleans up the CO₂ produced by other cars on the road.

The Zem was born out of a challenge to build a completely carbon-neutral vehicle. Its body panels (金属板) were 3D printed to reduce waste and minimize the production of CO₂. Recycled plastics were also used throughout the outside and inside. The car’s powertrain, which consists of small battery packs and a 22-kWh motor, also makes use of regenerative braking to increase efficiency.

The real difference maker, though, is the vehicle’s special CO₂ filter. The Zem purifies (净化) the air through the special filter while driving, capturing the CO₂ and storing it. It is able to absorb two kg of CO₂ for 20,000 miles a year, meaning ten cars could store as much carbon dioxide as an average tree — a significant amount when considering the world’s billion cars are currently one of its leading sources of emissions.

Even if the technology isn’t adopted, the team hope that their car can inspire automakers to start making cleaner vehicles. “We want to encourage the industry by showing what is already possible,” the leader of the team said. “If 35 students can design, develop and build an almost carbon-neutral car in a year, then there are also opportunities and possibilities for the industry.”

The Zem is the second zero-emission vehicle we’ve seen come out of the Eindhoven University of Technology. Last year, another team of students created the Stella Vita, a solar-powered vehicle that could travel up to 450 miles a day. We can’t wait to see what the school’s students come up with next.

Over and over at the UN climate summit in Glasgow, world leaders have stressed the need     1     (limit) global warming to 1. 5 degrees Celsius. Experts have said crossing the 1. 5 ℃threshold(界限）risks     2     （release) far more severe climate change effects on people, wildlife and ecosystems. Preventing it     3     (require) almost halving global CO₂ emissions(排放) by 2030 from 2010 levels and cutting them to net-zero by 2050.

Already, the world has heated to around 1. 1℃ above pre-industrial levels. Each of the last four decades was     4     (hot) than any decade since 1850. “We never had such a global warming in only a few decades,” said climate     5     (science) Daniela Jacob at the Climate Service Center Germany.

More warming to 1. 5 ℃ and beyond will     6     (worse) such impacts. For example, heatwaves would become both more frequent and more severe. A warmer atmosphere can also hold more moisture(水分), resulting in more extreme rainfall     7     raises flood risks. It also increases evaporation, leading to more intense droughts.

“At 1. 5 ℃, there’s     8     good chance that we can keep most of the Greenland and west Antarctic ice sheet     9     collapsing,” said climate expert Michael Mann at Pennsylvania State University. That would help limit sea level rise to a few     10     (foot) by the end of the century.