雅思阅读 007 · The Trouble with Plastic Recycling

环境主题。题型：选择题 + T/F/NG。难度：中等偏上（P2）。

正文 Passage

For decades, the message has been simple: reduce, reuse, recycle. Plastic waste, in particular, is something that consumers are told to sort carefully, rinse clean and place in the correct bin. The assumption is that once the plastic leaves the home, it will be transformed into something new — a new bottle, a fleece jacket, a garden chair.

Reality is far less reassuring. Despite decades of campaigning, only about 9 per cent of all plastic ever produced has actually been recycled. The vast majority ends up in landfill, in incinerators, or in the natural environment. Even in countries with sophisticated recycling systems, the proportion of plastic that is successfully reprocessed is surprisingly low.

The problem starts with chemistry. Unlike glass or metal, which can be melted and reformed indefinitely without losing quality, plastic is a polymer — a long chain of molecules. Every time it is melted and remoulded, the chains break down slightly. The result is "downcycling": a plastic bottle becomes a lower-quality product, which in turn becomes something even lower quality, until eventually it cannot be recycled at all.

There is also the problem of sorting. Plastics come in seven different types, numbered from 1 to 7, each with different properties and melt temperatures. A single batch of mixed plastics cannot be processed economically. Modern recycling plants use optical sorters and air jets to separate them, but even the best facilities lose a significant proportion to contamination — a greasy pizza box, a piece of food residue, a wrong item in the bin.

Then there is the market. For years, much of the world's plastic waste was shipped to China, where it was processed into new goods. China banned most plastic imports in 2018, leaving Western countries scrambling for alternative destinations. Much of the waste ended up in Southeast Asia, where informal recycling operations burn plastic in open air, releasing toxic fumes.

None of this means recycling is pointless. It is better than landfilling. But the lesson from the past two decades is that recycling alone will not solve the plastic problem. The real solutions lie upstream: designing products that are easier to recycle, reducing the use of single-use plastic altogether, and rethinking a system that treats a material made to last forever as something to be used once and thrown away.

题目 Questions

Questions 1-3: Choose the correct letter.

1. What percentage of plastic ever produced has been recycled?

• A. 9 per cent
• B. 25 per cent
• C. 50 per cent
• D. 75 per cent

2. Why is plastic different from glass and metal?

• A. it is cheaper
• B. it degrades in quality each time it is recycled
• C. it cannot be melted
• D. it is heavier

3. What happened in 2018?

• A. plastic recycling was invented
• B. China banned most plastic imports
• C. all plastic was banned
• D. glass replaced plastic

Questions 4-7: T/F/NG

4. Plastic can be recycled indefinitely without losing quality.

5. There are seven different types of plastic.

6. Contamination is a problem in recycling plants.

7. All plastic waste is now processed in China.

Questions 8-10: Complete the notes. NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS.

• Lower-quality recycling is called (8) ____________.
• Modern plants use optical sorters and (9) ____________ to separate plastics.
• The real solution lies (10) ____________ — designing better products.

答案 Answers

核心词汇

recycle / polymer / downcycling / incinerator / landfill / contamination / sort / melt / repurpose / single-use / upstream / optical sorter