On this hot summer afternoon outside Brattleboro, Vermont,
在这个炎热的夏日午后,在佛蒙特州的伯瑞特波罗外,
farmer Dean Hamilton has fired up his tractor and is fertilizing his hay field with urine.
农民迪恩·汉密尔顿开动了他的拖拉机,用尿液制成的肥料给他的干草施肥。
It takes a bit of time to get used to the idea says environmental engineer Nancy Love.
环境工程师南希·劳弗说需要一点时间来适应这个想法。
I've been surprised at how many people actually get beyond the giggle factor pretty quickly and are willing to listen.
我一直很惊讶到底有多少人能够觉得它不是玩笑,能够认真倾听这个项目。
The nonprofit Rich Earth Institute is working with Love and her team with support from the National Science Foundation.
受到美国国家科学基金会的支持,非盈利组织富地球研究所正与劳弗和她的团队合作。
They are fine-tuning new methods to recycle urine into fertilizer.
他们使用稍微调整了的新办法,回收尿液用作肥料。
There's a great quote by Buckminster Fuller about how pollution is nothing but the resources that we're not harvesting,
巴克敏斯特·富勒有一句名言,污染只是我们没有收获的资源,
and that we allow them to disperse because we've been been ignorant of their value.
我们允许污染四处分散,因为我们忽视了它们的价值。
Harvesting the resource of urine which is after all full of the same nutrients as chemical fertilizer will fix two problems at once:
毕竟尿液有化学肥料同样的养分,获取尿液资源能够一次性解决两个问题,
eliminate waste and create a natural fertilizer.
消除浪费以及创造自然肥料。
The Rich Earth Institute has been using urine as fertilizer since 2012.
富地球研究所从2012年起一直使用尿液作为肥料。
They collect about 26,000 liters a year thanks to a loyal group of dedicated donors.
多亏了一群忠心耿耿的捐赠者,他们一年收集了大约两万六千升的尿液。
We now have people who have some source-separating toilets in their homes.
如今有些人家中有可分离来源的马桶。
We also have people who have 55-gallon barrels where they collect
还有些人家拥有收集尿液的55加仑大桶,
and then we transport to our farms, and we've also got a large urine depot.
然后运送到我们的农场,我们有更大的存储尿液的仓库。
They pasteurize the urine to kill any microbes, and then it's applied directly onto hay fields.
他们对尿液进行杀菌,杀死微生物,然后可以直接在干草地里使用。
Now that they've partnered with the University of Michigan,
现在他们与密歇根大学合作。
Love says they're looking to take their project to the next level.
劳弗说他们期待进入下一个阶段。
There are three things we really are trying to do with the urine in this kind of next phase.
下一阶段我们要进行三种尝试。
We're trying to concentrate it. We're trying to apply technologies to reduce odor,
一个是浓缩尿液,一个是利用技术减少臭味,
and we're trying to deal with trace contaminants like the pharmaceuticals.
一个是找到如药物等污染物。
Dealing with pharmaceuticals is an important issue.
处理药物是一件很重要的事情。
Heating up urine kills germs but has no effect on chemicals like drugs that pass through our bodies.
加热尿液能杀死细菌,但是对流经身体的药物没有作用。
We know pharmaceuticals are a problem for aquatic organisms and water systems.
我们知道药物对于水生生物和水系统来说是个大问题。
It's debatable about the impact on human health at very, very low levels.
对身体的影响很小,关于这个论断却引发了争议。
Independent of that, I think most people would prefer that they not be in their food.
此外,我认为多数人还是希望食物中不出现这些东西。
For Love, this is all about redesigning our wastewater infrastructure for the 21st century.
对于劳弗来说,这是对21世纪废水基础设施的再设计。
Too many nutrients in the water leads to poor water quality by causing hazardous algal blooms.
水中的营养物质太多会导致有害藻类繁殖,从而导致水质变差。
Our water emissions are going into very sensitive water bodies that are vulnerable to these nutrient loads.
我们的水排放会进入到非常敏感的水体中,它不能承受这些营养负荷。
We need to change that dynamic. And if we can capture them and put them to a beneficial use, that's what we're trying to do.
我们需要做出改变,如果我们能捕捉住它们,将它们用于有用的地方,这是我们要做的事情。
Their efforts could make agriculture greener and our waterways cleaner.
他们努力使农业更环保,我们的水道更清洁。
Faith Lapidus VOA news
VOA新闻,法斯·拉皮德斯报道