Plastic that used to be put on a boat to get recycled 10,000km away is now hitting the road - literally.
在过去，新西兰的很多废旧塑料会被收集到船上并运送到地球的另一端进行回收利用。而现在，这些塑料将会被“放”到路上去。

Plastic:塑料
recycle:回收

Liardet St in New Plymouth has been resurfaced with asphalt partly made of used plastic.
New Plymouth的Liardet St最近在翻修时铺上了含有废旧塑料成分的新型沥青。

asphalt:沥青

"It looks just like an ordinary road surface, but there's actually the equivalent of more than 83,300 yoghurt pots inside," said David Langford, infrastructure manager for New Plymouth District Council.
New Plymouth地区议会的基础设施经理David Langford表示，“这种沥青跟普通的没什么区别，但成分里包含了超过83300个塑料酸奶盒的塑料成分”。

ordinary:普通；平常
equivalent:等价的，相等的；同意义的

Instead of shipping it to China, the plastic now only has to travel about 10 to 15km to find a second life.
自中国减少从西方国家接收垃圾并进行处理后，很多国家都遇到了垃圾处理方面的问题。不过新西兰可能找到了解决办法。现在这些废旧塑料只需要被运到10-15公里之外就能够重新被利用起来。

Around 500kg of plastics of type three to seven were used in the 90m of resurfacing - only about 0.5 percent of the total weight of the asphalt, called Plas Mix, but there are plans to up that ratio if the road holds up to traffic.
在铺设90米长的Liardet St所使用的沥青中含有约500公斤的塑料成分，这种混合材料被命名为Plas Mix。塑料仅占到了沥青总重量的0.5%，而如果测试顺利的话，这一占比将会进一步提高。

ratio:比率，比例

Plas Mix was developed by Road Science, a division of Downer.
据了解，Plas Mix是由Downer的一个名叫道路科学的部门研发出来的。

developed:成熟的；开发；研发
division:部门；分配

"It's probably actually a little bit better than normal asphalt," Road Science technical development manager Darcy Rogers Said.
道路科学的技术开发经理Darcy Rogers表示，“它实际上可能比普通的沥青还要好一点”。

"There are three killers for roads - there's water, heat and traffic. And through our testing, we've actually found that adding plastic increases the resistance to those three aspects."
“道路通常会面临来自水、交通和热能所带来的损伤。通过测试，我们发现添加了塑料的沥青能够增加应对这三方面的抵抗力”。

resistance:阻力；电阻；抵抗；反抗；抵抗力
aspects:方面；相位；面貌

It might be a New Zealand first, but plastic roads have already been trialled in India, Australia, Indonesia and the UK. There are concerns however when they deteriorate - as all roads eventually do - they could release microplastics into the environment.
这可能是新西兰第一次运用这种材料，不过目前印度、澳大利亚、印度尼西亚和英国也已经开始试行塑料道路。有人担心，当这种道路跟普通道路那样发生老化时，可能会向自然环境中释放塑料微粒。

deteriorate:恶化，变坏
eventually:最后，终于
microplastics:塑料微粒

"Testing has shown the new material is stronger and should perform better than standard asphalt while also being cost-effective," added Langford, "but the proof is in a real-world trial on our roads. So we'll be monitoring closely how it performs over the next several months."
Langford表示，“测试证明，这种材料更加结实，性能也应该好于标准沥青，而且性价比也更高。但是我们是在新西兰的道路上进行测试的。所以在接下来的几个月内我们将密切对它进行关注”。

material:材料，原料；物资；布料

Tests in the lab suggested it would last two decades. Both plastics and traditional asphalt are manufactured using petroleum of one type or another.
据实验室的测试结果来看，用塑料沥青铺设的道路的使用期大约在20年左右。不管是哪种沥青，基本都是来自于不同种类的石油。

petroleum:石油

Instead of paying to have 200 tonnes of plastics taken away every year, Langford hopes New Plymouth could become a hub for recycled plastics from around the region.
Langford表示，比起每年支付大量金钱让别国来帮助处理200顿塑料，不如让New Plymouth成为地区性的塑料回收中心。

"That will be much more sustainable in the long-run, saving our ratepayers money and cutting our carbon footprint as well as taking a huge step towards us becoming a zero-waste district."
“长远来看，这种方法更具可持续性，而且还能减少纳税人的负担；减少我们的碳足迹，还能让我们朝着零废料的目标再进一步”。

ratepayers:纳税人

China's decision last year to cut down the amount of recycling it accepts from overseas prompted the council's move to try something different.
去年，中国决定减少海外垃圾的接收数量，此后新西兰开始寻找可替代性的措施和办法。

"Instead of stockpiling or landfilling these plastics, we took this as an opportunity to innovate and come up with a better solution, which is where the idea to put it into asphalt came from," said Langford.
Langford还说，“我们没有堆积或填埋这些垃圾，而是把它当做一个机会来进行创新，找到更好的解决方案，这也是我们塑料沥青的灵感来源。”

innovate:创新

Overseas efforts at plastic-asphalt hybrid roads have tended to be more expensive than traditional kinds. Road Science's Plas Mix reportedly costs the same - about $45 per square metre.
从国外的塑料沥青道路来看，用这种材料来铺路的成本要高于传统沥青。而新西兰的Plas Mix材料也是如此——每平方米的铺设成本在$45纽币。

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