来源：《洛杉矶时报》
原文刊登日期：2021年9月29日
You’ve surely seen it before on a laundry powder bottle label, printed on a salad bag or stamped onto the container of a thousand other products lining the shelves of grocery and retail stores: A symbol with three “chasing” arrows that form a triangle. It may be green or black. It might have a number between 1 and 7 inside the triangle, which corresponds to the type of plastic used to construct it.
你以前肯定见过这个图案：在洗衣粉瓶的标签上；印在沙拉袋上；或印在杂货店和零售店货架上的上千种其他商品的包装上。这个图案由三个“追逐”箭头构成三角形。它可能是绿色或黑色的。可能在三角形内部有一个介于1到7之间的数字，这与用来制造的塑料类型相对应。
To the consumer, this symbol conveys the message that this item is recyclable and, for the sake of the planet, ought to be treated accordingly and not dumped into the trash bin. But to environmentalists and waste reduction advocates the symbol is, in many cases, a half-truth used by manufacturers to “greenwash” their products.
对消费者来说，这个标志传达了这样一个信息：这件商品是可回收的，为了保护地球，应该得到相应的处理，而不是扔进垃圾桶。但对于环保主义者和提倡减少浪费的人来说，在很多情况下，这一标志只是制造商用来为其产品穿上绿色外衣的半真半假的说法。
The truth is that many, if not most, of the plastic products bearing the symbol aren’t being recycled no matter if they are placed in recycling bins. In fact, less than 10% of all the single-use plastic ever made has been recycled, and that is unlikely to change without serious intervention.
事实是，许多(如果不是大多数的话)带有这个标志的塑料产品都没有被回收，无论它们是否被放在回收箱里。事实上，在所有一次性塑料制品中，只有不到10%被回收，如果不进行认真的干预，这一情况不太可能改变。
That’s the thinking behind Senate Bill 343. The bill would prohibit manufacturers from using a “chasing arrows” symbol on their products starting in 2024 unless they can prove it is not just potentially recyclable but is actually getting recycled in any meaningful way in California. It was passed by the Legislature and is now awaiting action by Governor Gavin Newsom, along with a package of other sensible proposals to improve recycling.
这就是加州参议院343号法案背后的想法。该法案将禁止制造商从2024年开始在其产品上使用“追逐箭头”标志，除非他们能证明塑料包装不仅有可能回收，而且在加州确实能以有意义的方式被回收。立法机构已经通过了该法案，现在正等待州长加文·纽森签字生效，同时还将出台一系列其他合理的建议，以改善塑料包装的回收利用。
The symbol was created in 1988 by the plastics industry with the good intention of conveying helpful information to consumers about what items could be recycled. But it went off the rails pretty quickly when package makers started plastering the symbol on just about anything, whether it could be recycled or not. The result is that consumers are optimistically filling up recycling bins with things that have no hope of being recycled, and making it difficult and more costly for recycling facilities to sort.
1988年，塑料行业创造了这个标志，目的是告诉消费者哪些物品可以回收利用。但当包装制造商开始将这一标志贴在任何东西上，不管它是否可以回收时，它很快就偏离了轨道。结果是，消费者乐观地往回收箱里塞满了没有希望被回收的东西，使得回收设施难以分类，成本也更高。
Unsurprisingly, plastic manufacturers opposed the bill, as they have done with all of the meaningful plastic-trash reduction proposals in recent years. They argue that the change will confuse consumers.
不出所料，塑料制造商反对该法案，就像他们近年来反对所有有意义的减少塑料垃圾提案一样。他们认为，这一变化会让消费者感到困惑。
It’s hard to say whether setting new rules for use of the recycling symbol will change consumer behavior. How many people even look at labels for information other than ingredients, calories or directions for use? That’s OK. The main objective of the bill is to change behavior among package makers and nudge them toward using materials that have a high recycling rate, such as glass, paper or PET or HDPE plastic, and away from those that don’t have a viable recycling market or can’t be recycled because they are constructed with two or more types of material.
很难说为回收标志的使用制定新的规则会改变消费者的行为。除了成分、卡路里或使用说明之外，还有多少人会查看标签上的信息？没关系。该法案的主要目的是改变包装制造商的行为，推动他们使用回收率高的材料，如玻璃、纸张、PET或HDPE塑料，而不是那些没有可行的回收市场或由于使用两种或两种以上材料而无法回收的包装。