1000年后，仍能找到落在海里的樂高積木

1000年后，仍能找到落在海里的樂高積木

The world's oceans are awash with millions of tiny plastic Lego pieces, and these toys-turned-pollutants are not going anywhere anytime soon.

全世界的海洋充斥著數(shù)以百萬(wàn)計(jì)的小塑料樂高積木，而這些玩具變成的污染物在短期內(nèi)不會(huì)擴(kuò)散到任何地方。

New research has found those classic Lego bricks take between 100 and 1,300 years to fully disintegrate at sea, depending on variations in the plastic's composition and the marine weathering it experiences.

新的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，這些經(jīng)典的樂高積木需要100到1300年的時(shí)間才能在海上完全分解，這取決于塑料成分的變化和它所經(jīng)歷的海洋風(fēng)化。

In 1997, nearly 5 million bits of Lego on a container ship fell overboard. Estimates also predict that over 2 million blocks have been flushed down the toilet by children, and depending on how effective waste treatment was at the time, an unknown proportion of those flushed in the 70s and 80s may be bobbing around in the waves, too.

1997年，一艘集裝箱船上近500萬(wàn)塊樂高積木落水。據(jù)估計(jì)，超過(guò)200萬(wàn)塊積木被兒童沖下廁所，根據(jù)當(dāng)時(shí)垃圾處理的有效程度，70年代和80年代被沖下廁所的積木中，可能也有一部分在波浪中搖擺。

In the past decade, voluntary organisations like the LEGO Lost at Sea Project have recovered thousands of plastic pieces from our beaches, but if these toys are really as sturdy as the new research suggests, we've got our work cut out for us. In all likelihood, these tiny little blocks will keep coming in waves for centuries to come.

在過(guò)去的十年里，像“樂高海上迷路”項(xiàng)目這樣的志愿組織，已經(jīng)從我們的海灘上回收了數(shù)以千計(jì)的塑料碎片，但是如果這些玩具真的像新的研究表明的那樣堅(jiān)固，我們的工作就有待完成了。 在接下來(lái)的幾個(gè)世紀(jì)里，這些微小的積木很可能會(huì)一波一波地冒出來(lái)。

"Lego is one of the most popular children's toys in history and part of its appeal has always been its durability," says Andrew Turner from the University of Plymouth, who studies the chemical properties of marine litter.

普利茅斯大學(xué)研究海洋垃圾化學(xué)特性的安德魯·特納說(shuō)：“樂高是歷史上最受歡迎的兒童玩具之一，它的一部分吸引力在于它的耐用性。”。

"It is specifically designed to be played with and handled, so it may not be especially surprising that despite potentially being in the sea for decades it isn't significantly worn down. However, the full extent of its durability was even a surprise to us."

“它是專門設(shè)計(jì)用來(lái)玩和處理的，所以盡管它可能在海里呆了幾十年，但它并沒有嚴(yán)重磨損，這可能并不特別令人驚訝。然而，它的完整持久性甚至讓我們感到驚訝。”

Collecting 50 Lego blocks from the beaches of southwest England, researchers compared chemicals in the weathered samples to archived Lego blocks in their original condition.

研究人員從英格蘭西南部的海灘上采集了50個(gè)樂高積木，將風(fēng)化樣品中的化學(xué)物質(zhì)與原始狀態(tài)下存檔的樂高積木進(jìn)行了比較。

The classic Lego brick is made of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), and while the company hopes to use more sustainable materials by 2030, this tough polymer has already done more than enough harm.

經(jīng)典的樂高積木是由丙烯腈-丁二烯-苯乙烯(ABS)制成的，雖然該公司希望到2030年使用更可持續(xù)的材料，但這種堅(jiān)韌的聚合物已經(jīng)造成了足夠多的危害。

While weathered blocks from the beach showed various degrees of weakening, yellowing, blunting, fracturing and fouling, researchers were surprised to find the toys largely intact.

雖然來(lái)自海灘的風(fēng)化塊顯示出不同程度的弱化、變黃、變鈍、破裂和污垢，但研究人員驚訝地發(fā)現(xiàn)，這些玩具基本上完好無(wú)損。

"Based on mass difference among paired samples that are about 40 years old we estimate residence times in the marine environment on the order of hundreds of years," the authors write.

作者寫道: “根據(jù)大約40年前的配對(duì)樣本之間的質(zhì)量差異，我們估計(jì)它們?cè)诤Ｑ蟓h(huán)境中的停留時(shí)間大約為數(shù)百年。”。