1 . One of the problems damaging our planet is the number of things we throw away. A more recent addition to the list of things we throw away is e-waste —   electronic items that are broken and not recycled.     1    , but also because we lack the skills to repair them even if we know their value. Many millions of tons of televisions, phones, and other electronic equipment are abandoned each year. A UN report claims the 50 million tons of e-waste generated every year will more than double to 110 million tons by 2050, making it the fastest growing waste stream in the world.     2    .

Recently, there’s a growing trend for repair events and clubs which could be part of a solution to the growing amount of electrical and electronic junk. The BBC visited a Restart Project in London, which is one of many found around the world. One of its operators, Francesco Calo, said that “This project makes total sense.     3    . Besides, it helps people who cannot afford to get rid of items that have developed a fault.”

    4    . An experiment at the University of New South Wales involves extracting (提取) these materials from electronic gadgets (小工具). Apart from just being recycled, the European Union, for example, is trying to encourage manufacturers to reuse some extracted electronic components.     5    . With phones typically containing as many as 60 elements, this could be part of the solution to our appetite for new technology.

3 . Plastic is the workhorse material of the modern economy. Light and durable, it’s been used to make a vast number of products since its introduction over 100 years ago.

However, a study carried out by the World Economic Forum, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation(基金会) and McKinsey &Company showed the breakdown of the status of the global plastic system. A full 32% of the 78 million tons of plastic packaging produced annually is left to flow into out oceans.

The Ocean Cleanup, a startup founded in 2013, is the brainchild of Boyan Slat, who came up with the idea for the company when he was just 17 years old. Since then, it has received more than $2 million in funding(基金). The company plans to use a large device that will be fixed to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. This will have arms that spread out over 100 km, getting all of the plastic garbage pushed into its nets. This is then collected by a 10,000 metrecube container that will be emptied monthly.

Most recently, the Ocean Cleanup launched a team of explorers aboard a specially refitted C130 Hercules aircraft heavily loaded with specialized sensor equipment. It discovered that the problem was worse than expected with an abundance of plastics measuring up to 1.5m across and at a higher density than previously thought. The organization will continue to pilot the device and will start removing the pile before the end of the decade.

Once the plastic is out, what should we do with it? The foundation hopes that the plastic from the ocean will have a commercial value which can help to fund the project. Ocean plastic is not easy to use, for it’s mixed with everything from intact PET bottles to microplastics. However, some of the world’s biggest companies also see the chance to market products made of ocean plastic.

Transforming today’s plastic economy from its present form (takemakewaste) to a zero waste circular economy (takemaketakemake) is a difficult challenge. However, with cooperative action from producers, recyclers, governments and consumers alike and continuing innovation, it can be done.

6 . The company SpaceX has already launched hundreds of its Star-link satellites, with plans to put as many as 42,000 of them in Earth orbit. Its goal is to provide high-speed Internet to billions of people. Moving toward that kind of access is important, but it comes at a cost. Glittering with reflected sunlight, these first orbiters, sent up in the past year, are brighter than 99 percent of the 5,000 or so other satellites now circling Earth, and obviously there are going to be a lot more. This sudden increase is bad for astronomy: the probability of a Star-link satellite crossing a telescope’s field of view and ruining an observation will be quite high near sunset. For that reason, my fellow astronomers have signed a petition (请愿书) calling for governments to protect the night sky from this invasion.

In response to protests, SpaceX has promised to address the visibility problem by, for example, applying experimental coatings — essentially painting the satellites black — but the company’s aggressive launch schedule remains unchanged. And the satellites’ illuminated (被照亮) surfaces are mostly their solar panels — exactly the part that cannot be painted over.

Unfortunately, at present no regulations govern how bright a single satellite can be, let alone thousands of them together. Even if there were such regulations, one nation’s laws can not hinder (阻碍) another country’s launches. Space literally has no borders, and the sky will need to be protected at an international level. As a consequence, we hope that the United Nations will find a way to think outside of the box to save the sky for everyone.

When I was growing up in Montana, it was a game to be the first to find a moving satellite among the host of stars in the night sky. Soon it could be a game to recognize the constellations (星座) behind a swarm of moving points of light.

7 . About 12 million tons of plastic wastes are entering the oceans every year. This garbage pollutes the water, kills wildlife and breaks down into small pieces that fish and other creatures eat.

Now a group of Spanish fishermen will receive economic support to catch plastics. It is part of a new project. Carlos Martin is one of the fishermen taking part in the project. He and his partners collect the plastic in the ocean and bring it back to land every week. Martin thinks rivers carry a lot of plastics to the sea. He says his most concern is no more than that the plastics often get caught in the nets, which makes nets not work properly. They take on mud（泥）, causing the nets to break because they weigh so much.

Under the new programs, one million pounds will support ocean cleanup efforts for fishermen like Martin. The money is coming from the European Union and the Catalan government. Sergi Tudela, the General Director of Catalonia Fisheries, is responsible for the cleanup project. He said, "We are hopeful that if we are successful in this project, we can apply it to other areas in the Mediterranean（地中海）."

Government reports show that the amount of plastic wastes washing up along the Spanish coastline has grown by 65 percent in just six years. Fishing equipment makes up a large part of the about 8 to 12 million tons of plastics left in the world's oceans every year.

Martin says the fishing community now understands how big the problem is. He says, "In the past we didn't see it that way. We took the plastic garbage and threw it back into the water. I think that after a few year here we have realized the problem. Nothing is thrown into the water; we collect everything and bring it to shore.

8 . Hardware in general, and smartphones in particular, have become a huge environmental and health problem in the Global South' s landfill sites(垃圾填埋场).

Electronic waste(e-waste) currently takes up 5 percent of all global waste, and it is set to increase rapidly as more of us own more than one smartphone, laptop and power bank. They end up in places like Agbogbloshie on the outskirts of Ghana's capital, Accra.It is the biggest e-waste dump in the world, where 10,000 informal workers walk through tons of abandoned goods as part of an informal recycling process.They risk their health searching for the precious metals that are found in abandoned smartphones.

But Agbogbloshie should not exist. The Basel Convention, a 1989 treaty aims to prevent developed nations from unauthorized dumping of e-waste in less developed countries. The E-waste industry, however, circumvents the regulations by exporting e-waste labelled as “secondhand goods” to poor countries like Ghana, knowing full well that it is heading for a landfill site.

A recent report found Agbogbloshie contained some of the most dangerous chemicals.This is not surprising: smartphones contain chemicals like mercury(水银), lead and even   arsenic (砷 ) Reportedly, one egg from a free-range chicken in Agbogbloshie contained a certain chemical which can cause cancer and damage the immune system at a level that's about 220 times greater than a limit set by the European Food Safety Authority(EFSA), Most worryingly, these poisonous chemicals are free to pollute the broader soil and water system. This should concern us all, since some of Ghana's top exports are cocoa and nuts.

Some governments have started to take responsibility for their consumers' waste.For example, Germany has started a project that includes a sustainable recycling system at Agbogbloshie, along with a health clinic for workers.However, governments cannot solve the problem alone, as there is am almost limitless consumer demand for hardware, especially when governments’ green policies are focused on issues like climate change.

Only the manufacturers can fix this.A more economically sustainable and politically possible solution is through encouraging hardware manufacturers to make the repair, reuse and recycling of hardware profitable, or at least cost-neutral.

9 . Scientists say they have found high levels of small plastic particles(颗粒) in Arctic snow. A German-Swiss research team collected snow samples(样本）from the Arctic and other areas. They included northern Germany, the Bavarian and Swiss Alps, and the North Sea island of Heligoland.When the researchers examined the samples in a laboratory, they were surprised to find very high levels of microplastics.

Microplastics are very small pieces of plastic. These plastic particles are generally smaller than 5 millimeters in length. They come from the breakdown of man-made plastic products and industrial waste.

The study found the highest levels of microplastics came from the Bavarian Alps. One snow sample from the area had 154,000 microplastic particles per liter. Samples collected from the Arctic had much lower levels. However, even samples from the Arctic contained up to 14,000 particles per liter.

The study also attempted to explore how some of the material could have been carried in the atmosphere. A limited number of earlier studies did find microplastics in the air of some cities, including Paris, Tehran and Dongguan, China.

Bergmann Melanie co-wrote the report on the new study. She believes the new study clearly shows that “the majority of the microplastic in the snow comes from the air.” The new study suggests that much of the microplastic found in Europe and the Arctic comes from the atmosphere and snow.

While there is growing concern about the effect of microplastics on the environment, scientists are still studying their possible harmful effects on humans and animals. “I hope the new study will lead to more research on this issue. I think   microscopic plastic particles should be included in worldwide observations of air pollution levels.We really need to know what effects microplastics have on humans, especially if inhaled with the air that we breathe.” Bergmann said.

As we all know, there are many kinds of pollution all over the world, air pollution, water pollution, noise pollution and so on. Although we can't save the world in a short time, we can take   some measures to protect     1    . For example, we can prevent people throwing litter; we can sort the rubbish in the community; we can drive less and produce less carbon dioxide.

    2     (actual), there is a new recycling program at our school, which aims to help us create     3    better environment. The recycling we've planned is simply a three-part program: sorting, collecting and delivering. The first part — sorting is also the     4     (hard) one. Most people don't like taking the time to do the     5     (separate) of the rubbish and this is usually why most recycling     6     (program) fail. However, we have reasons     7     (believe) that our words will work. From now on, instead of seeing the usual black rubbish cans all over the school, you     8     (see) three different colors of rubbish cans. Pink cans are for paper, blue cans for bottles, and white ones for all other waste. After the rubbish     9     (sort), it needs to be collected and then taken     10     different rubbish recycling centers.