印度企業(yè)家發(fā)明可食用的綠色環(huán)保包裝袋.

　　In 2012, the Mangalore City Corporation banned the manufacture, sale, and distribution of plastic bags. Other Indian cities and provinces have followed suit, and the country as a whole considered a ban back in February of this year.

　　2012 年印度芒格洛爾(印度港市)市地方政府禁止生產(chǎn)、銷(xiāo)售及分散塑料袋，此后其他省市紛紛效仿，總之今年二月份印度將禁止使用塑料袋的提議再次提上日程。

　　Which sounds like a good thing (and it is, for the environment), but local entrepreneur Ashwath Hegde knew that not everyone would be able to afford the available alternatives. So he did what anyone would do – he spent four years knee-deep in research and emerged with EnviGreen – a company that produces organic, biodegradable, eco-friendly bags.

　　最起碼對(duì)環(huán)境來(lái)說(shuō)這是件好事，但是當(dāng)?shù)仄髽I(yè)家Ashwath Hegde清楚的知道并不是每個(gè)人都能買(mǎi)得起這種新塑料袋。因此他做了每個(gè)人都會(huì)選擇做的事情：花了整整四年的時(shí)間研究，并同時(shí)與一家生產(chǎn)有機(jī)、生物可降解及環(huán)保塑料袋的名為EnviGreen的公司產(chǎn)嶄露頭角。

　　The bags are made from 12 ingredients (like a cake!) – potato, tapioca, corn, starch, vegetable oil, banana, and flower oil, among others – so don’t be fooled even though they look very similar to their plastic predecessors. If you place an EnviGreen bag in a glass of room-temperature water, it will completely dissolve in a day (in boiling water, it will dissolve in just 15 seconds). The bags will biodegrade in less than 180 days, so they can be tossed without worry, and – this is the best part – they’re edible. Which means that if an animal (or marine life) happens to ingest them, they would be perfectly fine.

　　像做蛋糕一樣新研究出的袋子由12種成分構(gòu)成：土豆，木薯粉，玉米，淀粉，植物油，香蕉，花油及其他。所以盡管這種新式袋子和之前的塑料袋很像，但也不要把它們搞混了。把這種袋子放在一杯室溫水中，一天時(shí)間內(nèi)它便會(huì)完全溶解(如果是沸水的話(huà)，15秒鐘內(nèi)就會(huì)溶解)，如果是自然降解需要180天。所以即使是隨便亂扔也不用擔(dān)心會(huì)污染環(huán)境了。最妙之處在于這種袋子還可食用。這意味著如果是動(dòng)物或海洋生物不小心吃了的話(huà)也無(wú)大礙。

　　Amazing, no?

　　很神奇，不是嗎?

　　But wait. It gets better.

　　但是等等，更精彩的還在后面。

　　Even the process for making these bags is completely chemical free.

　　即便是制作這些袋子時(shí)也沒(méi)有使用任何化學(xué)材料。

　　“We don’t use any chemicals at all. Even the paint used for printing on the bags is natural and organic. And the cost of one EnviGreen bag is about 35% more than that of a plastic bag, but 500% less than a cloth bag.”

　　我們不會(huì)用一點(diǎn)化學(xué)材料，就算是用在袋子上的顏料也是天然有機(jī)的。一個(gè)EvniGreen袋子的價(jià)格大概比一個(gè)塑料袋的價(jià)格多出35%，但是要低于一個(gè)布袋的價(jià)格的500%。

　　And he even drank the water that dissolved one of his bags to prove that it’s safe.

　　為了證明這種袋子的安全性，Ashwath Hegde甚至還喝了一杯他溶解過(guò)袋子的水。

　　Hegde’s claims are backed up by the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board, which conducted several tests to ensure the bags contained no plastic bore approving their use. They don’t melt, drop, or release any toxic fumes when burnt, and the results have been verified by both the Central Institute of Plastic Engineering and the Sriram Institute for Industrial Research.

　　Hegde的主張得到了卡納塔克邦污染控制委員會(huì)的支持。他們對(duì)這種袋子做了一些測(cè)試以確保不含塑料成分，然后才能通過(guò)使用。點(diǎn)燃后這種袋子不會(huì)熔化，滴落或釋放任何有毒氣體，該結(jié)果已經(jīng)被中央研究院塑料工程和羅摩工業(yè)研究所證實(shí)。

　　Hegde has set up a factory in Mangalore City and he plans to source his materials from local farmers. At the moment, the bags are not available in India, but are in Qatar and Abu Dhabi. They will be in India soon and, with cities like Los Angeles already banning plastic bags in the U.S., hopully they’ll make their way across the world soon.

　　Hegde已經(jīng)在芒格洛爾市建立工廠并打算從當(dāng)?shù)剞r(nóng)民那購(gòu)得原材料。目前，這種袋子還未在印度投入使用，但是已經(jīng)在卡塔爾和阿布扎比可見(jiàn)，不久后應(yīng)該會(huì)在印度出現(xiàn)。隨著像美國(guó)的洛杉磯這樣的城市早就禁止了塑料袋，希望新式袋子的使用在不久的將來(lái)便能普及世界。