评论
打印
One freezing cold morning, I drove past the outer edge of Denver, Colorado, past Buckley air force base, past the suburban neighbourhoods huddled at the edge of the Great Plains.
一个寒冷刺骨的清晨，我开车经过科罗拉多州丹佛市的周边，经过巴克利空军基地，经过大平原边缘拥挤不堪的郊区社区。
I saw rising from the prairie several low bumps, lifting from the horizon like icebergs.
我看见几处低矮的山丘从大草原上升起，如冰山从地平线上拔地而起一样。
As I got close to them, I saw they were encircled by barbed wire and knew I had reached my destination.
当我接近时，我看到四周由带刺的铁丝网包围着，我知道我已经到达目的地了。
I pulled into the Denver Arapahoe Disposal Site, cutely known as Dads.
我开车驶入了丹佛阿拉帕霍垃圾处理场，这个垃圾场有个可爱的名字“Dads”。
I was part of a tour, arranged by a local reporter.
我参加了当地记者安排的参观活动。
Ten people gathered around our guide, Doc Nyiro, a Dads manager, middle-aged, with a studious, geeky demeanour.
十个人围在我们的导游尼罗博士身边。尼罗博士是这个垃圾处理场的管理人，他是一位专心致志、勤奋用功的中年男子。
Nyiro began by telling us that Dads is open 24 hours a day, six days a week.
尼罗一开始就告诉我们，“Dads”垃圾处理场每天营业24小时，每周营业6天。
Every day, 800 trucks arrive, culminating in about 2m tonnes of refuse a year.
每天有800辆卡车抵达这里，每年产生大约200万吨垃圾。
We watched the trucks pulling into the weigh station.
我们看着一辆辆卡车开进称重站。
“It just doesn’t slow down,” Nyiro said. “Truck after truck.”
尼罗说：“速度不会慢下来，一辆又一辆卡车开进来。”
Climbing into a van, Nyiro took us to an area where a new cell was being constructed: the foundation for a new mountain of trash.
尼罗爬上一辆面包车，把我们带到一个正在建造新单元的地方：一座新垃圾山的地基。
It was 10 hectares in size and lined with clay and crushed glass to prevent the liquid that would gather as the rubbish breaks down from leaking into the groundwater.
这个单元占地面积为10公顷，地面铺有粘土和碎玻，以防止垃圾分解时聚集的液体泄漏到地下水中。
Once completed, the cell will be filled with waste, and would reach 90 metres high within two years.
一旦建成，这个单元将被废物填满，并将在两年内达到90米高。
Next, Nyiro took us to an active landfill area.
接着，尼罗带我们去了一个运转中的垃圾填埋场。
We joined the line of traffic, driving a steep, rough dirt road to the top of a hill.
我们加入了车流，沿着陡峭崎岖的土路开到山顶。
We watched as a line of trucks stopped around us to empty out everything imaginable.
我们看到一排卡车在我们周围停下，把所有能想到的东西都清空了。
“It looks like they just took all the contents of my apartment and dumped it here,” a man on the tour said, not joking.
“看起来他们把我公寓里所有的东西都拿走了，倾倒在了这里，”参观团队中的一名男子说，他并没有开玩笑。
The wind whipped trash into the air like snow as 100-tonne tractors compressed couches and cookie boxes and everything in between into thick strata that contain the full record of modern life.
风把垃圾吹到空中，垃圾如雪一般散落，100吨重的拖拉机把沙发、饼干盒和中间一切的东西压成厚厚的层状结构，其中包含了现代生活的全部记录。
The result: a dry tomb of waste that will endure for millennia.
最终的结果是：一个干燥的垃圾坟墓将延续数千年。
Nyiro then led us to a tragically small area of Dads dedicated to gathering recyclable and compostable materials.
随后，尼罗带我们去了这个垃圾处理场的一个极小区域，这个区域专门用于收集可回收和可堆肥的材料。
At the final stop, we visited an electricity plant, with old train motors powered by methane released from decomposing trash.
在最后一站，我们参观了一个发电厂，旧火车发动机由垃圾分解释放的甲烷驱动。
The plant produces enough electricity to power 2,500 homes a year.
这个发电厂每年生产的电力足以为2500个家庭供电。
