國家地理:沒有垃圾的世界可能存在嗎(12)

Food

食品

People can't go circular on their own; the system has to change. But individual choices do matter. "It's about using less stuff in the first place," said Liz Goodwin of the World Resources Institute.

人們無法只靠一己之力實現(xiàn)資源循環(huán)，整個系統(tǒng)必須轉(zhuǎn)變。但個人選擇仍然重要?！笆紫纫龅氖窍母俚漠a(chǎn)品?！笔澜缳Y源研究所的利茲·古德溫說。

In 2008 the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), which Goodwin ran then, did one of the first major studies of food waste. The nonprofit surveyed more than 2,100 British families who had agreed to let inspectors paw through their garbage and weigh each food scrap. "Absolutely shocking," Goodwin recalled. "We found whole chickens in their wrappers." Nearly half of all salad and a quarter of all fruit was ending up in bins, as were nearly 400,000 tons of potatoes a year. In all, Britons were tossing one of every three bags of groceries.

2008年，古德溫當時正在運作的廢棄物與資源行動計劃（WRAP）率先完成了對食品垃圾的重要調(diào)研之一。該非營利組織對英國逾2100個家庭進行調(diào)查，得到允許后翻查各家垃圾，將食物殘渣匯總稱重?！敖Y(jié)果絕對令人震驚?！惫诺聹鼗貞浾f，“我們多次發(fā)現(xiàn)包裝完好的整只肉雞?！泵磕暧薪咏话肷忱卟?、四分之一的水果和36萬噸土豆被丟進垃圾桶。綜合來看，英國人購入的每三袋食物中就有一袋被丟棄。

As it turned out, they're not exceptional. Roughly a third of all food is wasted globally, at an annual cost of nearly a trillion dollars, WRAP's global director, Richard Swannell, told me. Over dinner at a restaurant in Oxford, at which we both took care to clean our plates, Swannell explained that before the WRAP study, no one was aware of just how much food -- and money -- was going to waste in Britain.

后來發(fā)現(xiàn)這種情況并非英國專有。WRAP的全球主管理查德·斯旺內(nèi)爾告訴我，全球所有食物約有三分之一被浪費，每年損失近1萬億美元。在牛津共進晚餐時，我們兩人都特意吃凈盤中餐。斯旺內(nèi)爾解釋說，在進行那項調(diào)研之前，人們對英國到底有多少食物以及金錢被浪費并無概念。

WRAP launched a chipper PR campaign ("Love Food Hate Waste"). It worked with women's groups to disseminate food-rescue tips. (A favorite was ways to dress up toast to save stale bread.) It also persuaded grocery chains to adopt some simple measures: Clearer, extended "use by" dates; smaller, resealable packages; an end to "buy one, get one free" sales on perishables. It was boring stuff, forgotten common sense, but it worked. By 2012 the amount of edible food wasted in Britain had fallen by a fifth. "We've had massive progress," Swannell said.

WRAP還發(fā)起了公關(guān)活動“愛美食恨浪費”，并與女性群體合作，傳播節(jié)省食物的竅門（其中最受歡迎的一種是把舊面包做成加料烤吐司）。它還說服連鎖超市采用一些簡單措施，例如把可食用期限標注得更清晰，使用容量小、可反復(fù)密封的食品包裝，取消易變質(zhì)食品的“買一送一”促銷。這只是些無趣的操作或被人遺忘的常識，但確實有效。到2012年，英國的食品浪費量降低了五分之一。“我們已取得了巨大進步?！彼雇鷥?nèi)爾說。