美国国家公共电台 NPR A Day's Work On Delhi's Mountain Of Trash

 

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

In India, garbage is becoming a big problem. The country is getting richer, consuming more and creating more waste. Landfills on the edges of cities are growing into huge mountains of trash. NPR's Lauren Frayer visited one of them in the capital New Delhi and met some of the locals gleaning¹ a livelihood² from it.

(SOUNDBITE OF DOGS BARKING)

LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE³: The first thing you notice on the edge of this massive mountain of garbage is the dogs. They're barking. Some of them are sort of coughing. And the stench - it just hits you.

SHEIKH RAHIM: (Speaking Hindi).

FRAYER: But this is where Sheikh Rahim just barely makes a living for his four children by scavenging plastic to sell to recyclers. When he moved here two decades ago, the trash heap was maybe a quarter of its current size, he says. Now it's 20 stories high, almost as tall as the Taj Mahal. From afar, it looks like a beige plateau on the horizon, something out of the American West. It bakes in the 100-degree heat, emitting fumes⁴ and using toxins⁵ into the groundwater.

RAHIM: (Through interpreter) I get tetanus shots because my hands get cut, and my back gets scraped from climbing through the barbed wire. Police put up the wire two years ago to keep us out after a landslide⁶ of trash buried two people alive.

FRAYER: So this is the barbed wire that he climbs under here. It's pretty easy. I mean, it's a 3-foot hole I can easily climb through. And, in fact, there - I'm inside now. There's a cliff of trash. And there are actually trucks driving on top of it. So the trucks have carved out, bulldozed out a road, kind of a switchback road that goes up the mountain of trash. And I guess he's going to climb it.

Up the trash mountain Rahim climbs in flip⁷ flops⁸ each day at noon, the hottest time of day when there's less competition, he says. He looks like a gymnast, wiry from scampering⁹ up this heap. Vultures circle and dive above him. Before dusk, Rahim descends¹⁰ with a sack full of recyclables.

RAHIM: (Speaking Hindi).

FRAYER: So here he is sorting opaque¹¹ plastic, clear plastic. And then there's some aluminum¹² foil.

Most of India's recycling happens like this. Even if you sort your trash at home, municipal garbage collectors - if they even service your neighborhood - often toss it into the truck altogether. It gets sorted again at the landfill, not by the municipality but by the poorest of the poor. Rahim picks through rotten trash for about five hours, then sorts and sells a day's haul for 150 rupees - about $2 - to middlemen like Mohammed Asif.

Asif is one step up in the garbage chain. He's got a workshop directly facing the trash mountain separated from it by a creek¹³ of raw sewage. He's also got an army of local boys picking up recyclables for them. He weighs bags bursting with empty bottles and sells them to truckers bound for recycling plants. He licks his fingers and peels bills off a fat wad of currency.

MOHAMMED ASIF: (Through interpreter) I'm a businessman. I do this for money. But if I don't, our streets will fill with trash. We won't be able to handle it. It already stinks¹⁴. Our eyes burn. In summer, this trash mountain spontaneously catches fire.

FRAYER: Asthma¹⁵, tuberculosis¹⁶, dengue fever - living next to dumps like this one can take decades off your life expectancy¹⁷. And there are landfills like this in every major Indian city. Delhi has four. There are many, many thousands of people like Rahim and Asif.

As I leave, my taxi driver Paramjeet Singh asks why I wanted to come here. Don't we have trash mountains in America, he asks.

PARAMJEET SINGH: So where going the trash in America?

FRAYER: Yeah. It's a good question. We have even more trash...

SINGH: Yeah. Yeah - more trash...

FRAYER: ...More trash than India.

SINGH: ...In India.

FRAYER: But you don't see it.

SINGH: I don't like.

FRAYER: You don't like this.

SINGH: I don't like.

FRAYER: Lauren Frayer, NPR News, on the Ghazipur Landfill in New Delhi.

1 gleaning   

n.拾落穗，拾遗，落穗v.一点点地收集（资料、事实）( glean的现在分词 )；（收割后）拾穗

参考例句：

• At present we're gleaning information from all sources. 目前，我们正从各种渠道收集信息。 来自辞典例句
• His pale gray eyes were gleaning with ferocity and triumph. 他那淡灰色的眼睛里闪着残忍和胜利的光芒。 来自辞典例句

2 livelihood   

n.生计，谋生之道

参考例句：

• Appropriate arrangements will be made for their work and livelihood.他们的工作和生活会得到妥善安排。
• My father gained a bare livelihood of family by his own hands.父亲靠自己的双手勉强维持家计。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 fumes   

n.(强烈而刺激的)气味，气体

参考例句：

• The health of our children is being endangered by exhaust fumes. 我们孩子们的健康正受到排放出的废气的损害。
• Exhaust fumes are bad for your health. 废气对健康有害。

5 toxins   

n.毒素( toxin的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The seas have been used as a receptacle for a range of industrial toxins. 海洋成了各种有毒工业废料的大容器。
• Most toxins are naturally excreted from the body. 大部分毒素被自然排出体外。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 landslide   

n.(竞选中)压倒多数的选票；一面倒的胜利

参考例句：

• Our candidate is predicated to win by a landslide.我们的候选人被预言将以绝对优势取胜。
• An electoral landslide put the Labour Party into power in 1945.1945年工党以压倒多数的胜利当选执政。

7 flip   

vt.快速翻动；轻抛；轻拍；n.轻抛；adj.轻浮的

参考例句：

• I had a quick flip through the book and it looked very interesting.我很快翻阅了一下那本书，看来似乎很有趣。
• Let's flip a coin to see who pays the bill.咱们来抛硬币决定谁付钱。

8 flops   

n.失败( flop的名词复数 )v.（指书、戏剧等）彻底失败( flop的第三人称单数 )；（因疲惫而）猛然坐下；（笨拙地、不由自主地或松弛地）移动或落下；砸锅

参考例句：

• a pair of flip-flops 一双人字拖鞋
• HPC environments are often measured in terms of FLoating point Operations Per Second (FLOPS) . HPC环境通常以每秒浮点运算次数(FLOPS)加以度量。 来自互联网

9 scampering   

v.蹦蹦跳跳地跑，惊惶奔跑( scamper的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• A cat miaowed, then was heard scampering away. 马上起了猫叫，接着又听见猫逃走的声音。 来自汉英文学 - 家（1-26） - 家（1-26）
• A grey squirrel is scampering from limb to limb. 一只灰色的松鼠在树枝间跳来跳去。 来自辞典例句

10 descends   

v.下来( descend的第三人称单数 )；下去；下降；下斜

参考例句：

• This festival descends from a religious rite. 这个节日起源于宗教仪式。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The path descends steeply to the village. 小路陡直而下直到村子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 opaque   

adj.不透光的；不反光的，不传导的；晦涩的

参考例句：

• The windows are of opaque glass.这些窗户装着不透明玻璃。
• Their intentions remained opaque.他们的意图仍然令人费解。

12 aluminum   

n.(aluminium)铝

参考例句：

• The aluminum sheets cannot be too much thicker than 0.04 inches.铝板厚度不能超过0.04英寸。
• During the launch phase,it would ride in a protective aluminum shell.在发射阶段，它盛在一只保护的铝壳里。

13 creek   

n.小溪，小河，小湾

参考例句：

• He sprang through the creek.他跳过小河。
• People sunbathe in the nude on the rocks above the creek.人们在露出小溪的岩石上裸体晒日光浴。

14 stinks   

v.散发出恶臭( stink的第三人称单数 )；发臭味；名声臭；糟透

参考例句：

• The whole scheme stinks to high heaven—don't get involved in it. 整件事十分卑鄙龌龊——可别陷了进去。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The soup stinks of garlic. 这汤有大蒜气味。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

15 asthma   

n.气喘病，哮喘病

参考例句：

• I think he's having an asthma attack.我想他现在是哮喘病发作了。
• Its presence in allergic asthma is well known.它在过敏性气喘中的存在是大家很熟悉的。

16 tuberculosis   

n.结核病，肺结核

参考例句：

• People used to go to special health spring to recover from tuberculosis.人们常去温泉疗养胜地治疗肺结核。
• Tuberculosis is a curable disease.肺结核是一种可治愈的病。

17 expectancy   

n.期望，预期，（根据概率统计求得）预期数额

参考例句：

• Japanese people have a very high life expectancy.日本人的平均寿命非常长。
• The atomosphere of tense expectancy sobered everyone.这种期望的紧张气氛使每个人变得严肃起来。