國家地理:沒有垃圾的世界可能存在嗎(9)

Jorik Boer makes a living rescuing some of them as head of the Boer Group, a Dutch family business that began a century ago on the streets of Rotterdam with his great-grandfather collecting rags, metal, and paper in a cart. Today, from his base in Dordrecht, Boer runs five plants in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and Germany. Together they collect and sort -- and resell for reuse or recycling -- up to 460 tons of discarded clothing a day.

博爾集團的總裁約里克·博爾依靠回收這些衣物賺錢。他的荷蘭家族生意始于百年前的鹿特丹，從博爾的曾祖父用手推車收集廢布、金屬、紙頭開始。今天，他坐鎮(zhèn)多德雷赫特的總部，經(jīng)營著設在荷蘭、比利時、法國和德國的五家工廠。他們每天收集、分類、賣給回收站或二手市場的丟棄衣物總量可達460噸。

People have the wrong idea about what happens when they drop clothes into a donation bin, Boer said; they think the clothes are given directly to needy people. What usually happens instead is that companies like Boer buy donated clothing, sort it, and resell it -- all over the world.

博爾說，人們對自己將舊衣服投入捐贈箱后發(fā)生的一切有所誤解；他們以為那些衣服會直接被送給有需要的人。事實是，通常由類似博爾集團的公司收購捐贈的衣物，經(jīng)過分類轉(zhuǎn)賣到世界各地。

"You need a lot of experience to know where you can sell and reuse a piece of clothing," Boer said. Through the window behind him, I could see the rapid but practiced movements of women pulling clothes from conveyors, examining each item briefly, then pivoting and tossing it into one of 60 or so bags. Each woman sorts about three tons a day, Boer said. Sorters must have an eye for fashion -- especially for the best stuff, just 5 or 10 percent of the total, which makes most of Boer's profit. In Russia and eastern Europe, prized items such as women's underwear can fetch up to five euros a kilogram ($2.50 a pound). Most lower quality material gets shipped in 55-kilogram bales to Africa, where it's sold for as little as 50 cents a kilo.

“你需要豐富的經(jīng)驗，才能確知一件衣物能夠銷往哪里、重新利用。”博爾說。通過他身后的窗子，可以看到女工們快速而熟練地從傳送帶拉下衣服，逐件稍作檢視，然后轉(zhuǎn)身丟進約60個分揀袋中的一個。博爾說，每名女工每天約分揀3噸衣物，做這事必須有時尚眼光--尤其是對于僅占總量5%-10%的優(yōu)等品，它們是博爾的主要收入來源。在俄羅斯和東歐，女性內(nèi)衣這類熱門貨可賣出每公斤5歐元的好價錢。大部分次品被打成每個55公斤的大捆，運往非洲，售價可低廉到每公斤0.5美元。