A rainbow refuse system

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Most of us need to make a better effort when it comes to caring for creation, and it is always great to see how different countries are playing their part. One town in Sweden is leading the way by showing us how garbage can be put to good use.

Eskilstuna, a town with nearly 68,000 residents (居民), thanks to a rainbow refuse system, is sending zero rubbish to landfill.Because nearly all of the Swedish town's residents signed up to a sevencolor-coded recycling system, over half of the town's waste is being recycled—already ahead of the EU's 50% target for 2020.

The system means that homes have six colorful bags that separate metal, food, plastics, textiles(纺织品), cartons, and newspapers, and then a white bag for rubbish, such as items that can't be recycled. At the recycling plant, the bags are automatically sorted into different metal containers thanks to their vivid colors. The green bags containing food waste are converted into slurry (浆) that creates biogas used to fuel the town's buses.

The other bags are compacted (压紧) and recycled according to their materials and the plastic bags themselves are also recycled. There are further benefits, too. This kind of recycling necessitates just one garbage collection every few days, which means fewer traffic jams and less pollution and noise.

The only downside of the system is that rubbish that can't be recycled is burned, and although this is used to create energy, it does mean that further greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere.The overall benefits of the rainbow recycling, however, are proof that with a little effort—and some impressive engineering—we can all do our part in caring for our Earth.

阅读检测

1. What does the author think of Eskilstuna according to the text?

A. It has a small population.

B. It is a town full of garbage.

C. It is clever at handling garbage.

D. It keeps producing little rubbish.

2. What is the third paragraph intended to show?

A. How the system works.

B. How the system is created.

C. Why the system is accepted.

D. What is needed for the system.

3. Which is the benefit of the rainbow refuse system?

A. It ensures the town's buses run quicker.

B. It reduces the use of colorful bags.

C. It makes industrial wastes easier to recycle.

D. It is unnecessary for people to collect rubbish every day.

4. What is the disadvantage of the rainbow refuse system?

A. It makes the town noisy in a way.

B. It gets unrecyclable rubbish burned.

C. It doesn't recycle all family wastes.

D. It often causes traffic jams in the town.

语言学习

难句分析

The only downside of the system is that rubbish that can't be recycled is burned, and although this is used to create energy, it does mean that further greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere. 这个系统唯一的缺点是对不可回收的垃圾进行焚烧,虽然这是为了产生能量，但这确实意味着更多的温室气体会被排放到大气中。

该句为并列式主从复合句，句中and连接两个并列分句，在前一个分句中that引导表语从句，在后一个分句中although引导让步状语从句，that引导宾语从句。