你知道嗎？美國人每天扔掉的吸管足以繞地球兩圈。塑料吸管是世界第六大常見垃圾，而且還是十大海洋垃圾之一。也就是說，海洋上漂浮的大片塑料垃圾，有很大一部分是塑料吸管。看似不起眼的小小塑料吸管不僅在消耗著有限的石油資源，而且幾乎不會被回收利用，也不能被生物降解，所以會對環境和生態造成巨大破壞。過去幾年，英美等國開始發起各種吸管運動，來減少人們對吸管的使用。

截圖來自CNN網站

Every day, Americans throw away 500 million plastic straws, enough to circle the Earth twice, or fill 125 school buses.
每天美國人都要扔掉5億根塑料吸管，足以繞地球兩圈，或者裝滿125輛校車。

Made from fossil fuels, they are almost never recycled because they're too small and could be made from several different types of plastic. They simply contribute to the massive problem of plastic pollution; eight million tons of plastic is dumped into the oceans every year.
用化石燃料制成的塑料吸管幾乎從來不會被回收利用，因為它們體積太小，而且可能是由好幾種不同類型的塑料制成的。這些吸管直接加劇了塑料污染的嚴重問題，每年都會有800萬噸塑料被傾倒進海洋中。

小小的塑料吸管竟然會造成棘手的環境問題，很多成人可能都沒有意識到，但是美國一個9歲的小孩卻意識到了，還發起了第一場反吸管運動，讓塑料吸管成為可選項。

Plastic straws are now the target of a growing movement to reduce their use. Possibly the first of such campaigns, Be Straw Free was started in 2011 by Milo Cress, who was only nine years old at the time. "I noticed that whenever I ordered a drink at a restaurant, it would usually come with a straw in it, and I don't usually need a straw," he said.
現在以減少塑料吸管使用量為目標的運動越來越多。“不用吸管”可能是第一場這樣的運動，該運動在2011年由年僅9歲的米羅?克雷斯發起。克雷斯說：“我注意到，無論何時我在餐廳點飲料，杯子里總會有吸管，而我一般不需要吸管。”

"This seemed like a huge waste. Straws are made of oil, a precious and finite resource. Is making single-use plastic straws, which will be used for a matter of minutes before being tossed away, really what we want to do with this resource?"
“這看起來是一個巨大的浪費。塑料吸管是用石油制成的，而石油是一種寶貴的有限資源。用石油生產才用幾分鐘就丟掉的一次性吸管，我們真的想這么利用資源嗎？”

Cress started asking restaurants in Burlington, Vermont, where he lived at the time, to stop providing straws automatically to customers and make them optional instead. Many agreed and his request made ripples nationwide. He says that restaurants that make the switch report a reduction in the number of straws they use between 50 and 80%.
克雷斯開始請求他當時的居住地佛蒙特州伯靈頓的餐廳停止自動為顧客提供吸管，改為自選。許多餐廳都同意了，他的請求產生的影響像漣漪一般在全國擴散開來。他說，做出改變的餐廳報告說，所用的吸管數量減少了50%到80%。

而在大西洋的另一頭，英國人也開始采取措施應對塑料吸管造成的浪費和污染。英國一家連鎖酒吧選擇使用比塑料吸管更環保的替代品。

The anti-straw sentiment has crossed borders into the UK, where straws have been included in a government plan to ban all plastic waste by 2042. Last year, large pub chain Wetherspoons announced that it would replace plastic straws with paper alternatives across 900 outlets. After the announcement, many smaller chains and pubs across the country followed suit. According to Wetherspoons CEO John Hutson, the move will save 70 million plastic straws a year and the reaction from patrons has been "very positive."
反吸管熱潮還擴散到了英國，吸管被納入了英國政府在2042年前禁止所有塑料垃圾的計劃。去年，大型連鎖酒吧Wetherspoons宣布，將在900家分店中把塑料吸管替換為紙吸管。在這之后，英國許多中小型連鎖店和酒吧紛紛效仿。Wetherspoons公司的首席執行官約翰?哈特森表示，此舉每年將節省7000萬根塑料吸管，從客戶那里得到的反饋也“非常積極”。

Offering alternatives or making plastic straws optional, rather than banning them outright, is a common trait among these campaigns. "We do not want to make people feel bad for needing or even wanting to use a straw in their drink," said Jackie Nunez, founder of The Last Plastic Straw.
提供塑料吸管的替代品，或者將塑料吸管變為可選項，而不是完全禁止，是這類活動的普遍特征。“最后一根塑料吸管”運動的創始人杰基?努涅斯說：“我們不想讓人們因為需要或想要用吸管喝飲料而感到不痛快。”

"There are many other viable alternatives to single-use plastic drinking straws that are less harmful to the environment, wildlife and humans," she said.
她說：“有其他許多對環境、野生動物和人類更無害的可行選擇可以替代一次性塑料吸管。”

Some people use straws to reduce the damage of sugary or acidic drinks to their teeth, or due to special requirements. "There are disabled people who write me to tell me they carry reusable straws with them -- many reusable straws even come with a carrying case," said Cress. "There are reusable glass, stainless steel, copper, bamboo, and several other kinds of reusable straws."
有些人為了降低含糖或酸性飲料對牙齒的傷害或其他特殊需求而使用吸管。“有些不得不用吸管的人寫信告訴我，他們隨身攜帶可反復使用的吸管——許多這種吸管還自帶收納盒，”克雷斯說，“現在有可反復使用的玻璃吸管、不銹鋼吸管、銅吸管、竹吸管，還有好幾種其他類型的吸管可多次使用。”

By not demonizing the straw as an object, he thinks activists can hope to achieve better goals. "I am not out to ban straws. I think it's much more effective to encourage people to make the choice not to use them. Voluntary participation encourages people to spread the word. Forcing people to do things is not always the most effective way to make a change."
他認為，如果不將吸管這個物品妖魔化，反吸管活動有望達到更高的目標。“我不贊成禁止吸管。我認為鼓勵人們選擇不用吸管會有效得多。自愿的參與會鼓勵人們傳播信息。強迫人們去做事不一定是達成改變最有效的方式。”

英文來源：CNN
翻譯&編輯：丹妮