In 1993, New York State ordered stores to charge a deposit (押金) on beverage (饮料) containers. Within a year, consumers had returned millions of aluminum (铝) cans and glass and plastic bottles. Plenty of companies were eager to accept the aluminum and glass as raw materials for new products, but because few could figure out what to do with the plastic, much of it would be buried in landfills (垃圾填埋场). The problem was not limited to New York. Unfortunately, there were too few uses for second-hand plastic.
Today, one out of five plastic soda bottles is recycled in the United States. The reason for the change is that now there are dozens of companies across the country buying discarded plastic soda bottles and turning them into fence posts, paintbrushes, etc.
As the New York experience shows, recycling involves more than simply separating valuable materials from the rest of the rubbish. A discard remains a discard until somebody figures out how to give it a second life--and until economic arrangements exist to give that second life value. Without adequate markets to absorb materials collected for recycling, throwaways actually depress prices for used materials.
Shrinking landfill space, and rising costs for burying and burning rubbish are forcing local governments to look more closely at recycling. In many areas, the East Coast especially, recycling is already the least expensive waste management option. For every ton of waste recycled, a city avoids paying for its disposal (处理), which, in parts of New York, amounts to saving of more than $100 per ton. Recycling also stimulates the local economy by creating jobs and trims (减少) the pollution control and energy costs of industries that make recycled products by giving them a more refined raw material.
1. What regulation was issued by New York State concerning beverage containers?
A. Beverage companies should be responsible for collecting and reusing discarded plastic soda bottles.
B. Throwaways should be collected by the state for recycling.
C. A fee should be charged on used containers for recycling.
D. Consumers had to pay for beverage containers and could get their money back on returning them.
2. The returned plastic bottles in New York used to________.
A. end up somewhere underground B. be turned into raw materials
C. have a second-life value D. be separated from other rubbish
3. Recycling has become the first choice for the disposal of rubbish because________.
A. local governments find it easy to manage
B. recycling has great appeal for the jobless
C. recycling causes little pollution
D. other methods are more expensive
4. It can be concluded from the passage that________.
A. rubbish is a potential remedy (补救) for the shortage of raw materials
B. local governments in the U.S. can expect big profits from recycling
C. recycling is to be recommended both economically and environmentally
D. landfills will still be widely used for waste disposal