城市采矿工厂是否能够破解全球电子垃圾泛滥难题

2014-07-08 17:33:07来源：可可英语

　　There are, of course, U.S. companies already out there that specialize in refurbishing and recycling used electronics—Sims Recycling and ECS Refining are two larger examples. Typically, though, such companies dismantle unrefurbishable devices either manually or with automated shredders to recover their aluminum, steel and plastic but ship the circuit boards to smelters overseas, Bradoo said.

　　当然，已经有美国公司在专门从事翻修和回收二手电子产品业务，Sims Recycling和ECS Refining是其中两个规模较大的例子。布拉多说，这类公司通常采用手动方式或自动粉碎机来拆除不可翻新的设备，以便回收它们的铝、钢和塑料，但电路板则被运送至海外的冶炼厂。

　　It’s those circuit boards where most of the high-value metals reside, she added. In order to reclaim them in a sustainable way, BlueOak’s facility will take the boards, pulverize them further and put them through a high-temperature plasma-arc furnace.

　　她补充说，大多数贵重金属恰恰蕴含在这些电路板之中。为了以可持续的方式回收贵重金属，蓝橡树公司的新工厂将接收这些电路板，进一步粉碎加工，然后把它们放入等离子电弧炉进行熔化。

　　‘Value recovery from every part of that chain’

　　“从价值链的每个部分中回收价值”

　　Europe has long been ahead of the United States in its e-waste solutions, thanks not just to government mandates and an emphasis on recycling but also to infrastructure already in place there.

　　长久以来，欧洲的电子垃圾解决方案一直领先于美国，不仅仅是因为政府颁布了相关指令，企业重视回收问题，还应该归功于已经到位的基础设施。

　　“They had domestic secondary smelters that had the capital and the capability to redirect some of their capacity toward e-waste,” Bradoo said.

　　布拉多说：“欧洲一些国家的二级冶炼厂拥有充足的资本和技术能力，它们能够重新利用一些产能来处理电子垃圾。”

　　Even there, though, “there are no facilities we’re aware of that are dedicated to recovering precious metals from electronic scrap,” she said.

　　不过，即使在欧洲，“目前也没有专门从电子废料中回收贵金属的工厂，”她说。

　　Yet while BlueOak’s urban mining refinery may be “exactly the kind of facility that we need from an ecological perspective,” some key economic realities will have to be overcome, NRDC’s Hershkowitz said.

　　然而，尽管蓝橡树公司的城市采矿厂“从生态的角度看，或许是我们需要的那种设施，”但这家工厂还需要克服一些关键的经济现实，美国自然资源保护委员会的赫什科维茨说。

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