The U.S. city of Seattle is introducing a system to fine people who waste food. The city, in the USA's northwest, will begin issuing warnings on January the 1st and then start fining people six months later on July the 1st. People will get a $1 fine if more than 10 per cent of their garbage is food. Businesses will get a $50 fine. City officials want to reduce the amount of food that people and businesses waste. Americans waste around 40 per cent of the food they buy. The city hopes its new fines will bring this figure down. Seattle aims to increase the amount of waste it recycles from the current level of 56 per cent to 60 per cent. It has also become the second U.S. city to make composting compulsory.
美國西雅圖市引進了一種新的系統(tǒng)來對浪費食物的人進行罰款。美國西北部的這個城市,將會在1月1日發(fā)布警告,然后會在6個月之后,也就是7月1日開始執(zhí)行罰款。如果人們的垃圾箱內10%的垃圾是食物,那么就會受到1美元的罰款。商業(yè)會受到50美元的罰款。城市官方想要減少公民與商業(yè)浪費食物的數量。美國人買了食物之后,一般會浪費40%。城市希望新的罰款條例能夠縮小這一數字。西雅圖想要將垃圾回收率從現在的56%,提高到60%。西雅圖已經成為美國第二個強制生產化肥的城市。
The Seattle Public Utilities department said the new garbage disposal system should make people more aware that recycling is important. City official Tim Croll told the 'Seattle Times' newspaper that the programme would not make any money. He said: "The point isn't to raise revenue. We care more about reminding people to separate their materials." He added that he thinks the fines system will be a success and said he didn't expect to collect a lot of money in fines. It will be up to garbage collectors to decide if a house or business gets a fine. The collectors will look inside garbage bins to see how much food waste they contain. They can then add $1 or $50 to the next garbage bill.
西雅圖公共事業(yè)部門稱,新的垃圾處理系統(tǒng)應該會讓人們更加理解回收利用的重要性。城市官員提姆.克羅告訴《西雅圖時報》記者,這一項目是非盈利性質的。他說,重點不是提高稅收。我們更加重視提醒人們將物品分類。他還說,他認為罰款系統(tǒng)將會取得成功,他沒想通過罰款聚財。[01:49.05]The collectors will look inside garbage bins to see how much food waste they contain. 垃圾清潔工將會決定家庭或者公司是否應受到罰款。清潔工將會看垃圾箱里面所包含的食物垃圾。然后他們就能夠為下一次的垃圾.賬單增加1美元或者50沒有。