It’s Not Garbage, It’s an Energy Source
垃圾不再是垃圾，是能源 
By John Tagliabue

OSLO – This is a city that imports garbage. Some comes from England, some from Ireland. Some is from neighboring Sweden. It even has designs on the American market.
這是一座進口垃圾的城市。進口的垃圾有些來自英格蘭，有些來自愛爾蘭，有些來自鄰近的瑞典。甚至對美國市場都有規劃。

“I’d like to take some from the United States,” said Pal Mikkelsen, in his office at a huge plant on the edge of town that turns garbage into heat and electricity. “Sea transport is cheap.”
米克森的超大型發電廠位於奧斯陸市邊緣，將垃圾轉化成電力和暖氣，他在廠內的辦公室裡說：「我打算從美國進口一些垃圾，反正海運便宜。」

Oslo, a recycling-friendly place where roughly half the city and most of its schools are heated by burning garbage – household trash, industrial waste, even toxic and dangerous waste from hospitals and drug arrests – has a problem: it has literally run out of garbage to burn.
奧斯陸長於資源回收再利用，差不多半座城市和大部分的學校，暖氣都來自焚燒垃圾：家戶垃圾、事業廢棄物，甚至有毒且危險的垃圾－來自醫院和查扣的毒品。現在面臨一個問題：垃圾不夠燒了。

The problem is not unique to Oslo, a city of 1.4 million people. Across Northern Europe, where the practice of burning garbage to generate heat and electricity has exploded in recent decades, demand for trash far outstrips supply.
這不是擁有140萬人口的奧斯陸所獨有的問題。藉由燃燒垃圾產生電力和暖氣，最近數十年間在整個北歐大行其道，對垃圾的需求遠超過供給。

The fastidious population of Northern Europe produces only about 136 million metric tons of waste a year, far too little to supply incinerating plants that can handle more than 635 million metric tons. “And the Swedes continue to build” more plants, “as do Austria and Germany.”  Said Mr. Mikkelsen, 50, a mechanical engineer who for the last year has been the managing director of Oslo’s waste-to-energy agency.
愛乾淨的北歐人每年只製造1.36億公噸的垃圾，各國焚化爐每年可處理6.35億公噸垃圾，相差很大。米克森說：「瑞典人繼續在蓋更多的焚化電廠，奧地利和德國也是。」50歲的米克森是機械工程師，擔任奧斯陸垃圾轉化能源部門的總經理已有一年。

Stockholm, to the east, has become such a competitor that it has even managed to persuade some Norwegian municipalities to deliver their waste there. By ship and by truck, countless tons of garbage make their way from regions that have an excess to others that have the capacity to burn it and produce energy.
東邊的斯德哥爾摩和奧斯陸搶垃圾已經激烈到說服了數個挪威城鎮提供垃圾給斯德哥爾摩。已有不計其數的垃圾從產量過多的地方以船舶和卡車運到有設備焚化發電的地方。

“There’s a European waste market – it’s a commodity,” said Hege Rooth Olbergsveen, the senior adviser to Oslo’s waste recovery program. “It’s a growing market.”
奧斯陸垃圾回收部門的資深顧問奧博思文說：「現在有個歐洲垃圾市場，垃圾成為商品，這個市場正在成長。」

Most people approve of the idea. “Yes, absolutely,” said Terje Worren, 36, a software consultant. “It utilizes waste in a good away.”
大多數人贊成此一構想。36歲的軟體顧問沃倫說：「是的，肯定是這樣的。這是善加利用垃圾。」

The English like it, too. The Yorkshire-based company that handles garbage collection in the north of England now ships as much as 907 metric tons a month of garbage – or, since the bad stuff has been sorted out, “refuse-derived fuel” – to countries in Northern Europe, including Norway, according to Donna Cox, a Leeds city spokeswoman. A British tax on landfill makes it cheaper to send it to places like Oslo.
英格蘭人也參上一腳。里茲市發言人唐娜．考克斯說，設在約克夏的公司收集英格蘭北部的垃圾後運往挪威等北歐國家，一個月的船載量多達907公噸。這裡所說的垃圾已經過分類，或可稱為「垃圾衍生的燃料」。英國政府對垃圾掩埋課稅，將垃圾運往北歐反而比較便宜。

For some, it might seem bizarre that Oslo would resort to importing garbage to produce energy. Norway ranks among the world’s 10 largest exporters of oil and gas, and has abundant coal reserves and a network of more than 1,100 hydroelectric plants in its water-rich mountains.
挪威為全球十大石油和天然氣輸出國之一，燃煤蘊藏豐富，還有1,100多座水力發電廠，怎麼會搞到需要進口垃圾來發電，恐怕會讓某些人感到匪夷所思。

Yet Mr. Mikkelsen said garbage burning was “a game of renewable energy, to reduce the use of fossil fuels.”
米克森解釋道：「焚燒垃圾所發的電屬於再生能源，可以減少化石燃料的使用。」

But Lars Haltbrekken, the chairman of Norway’s oldest environmental group, an affiliate of the Friends of the Earth, said that from an environmental point of view, the waste-to-energy trend presented a big problem, causing pressure to produce more waste.
不過，「地球之友」的分支機構，挪威最老牌環保團體的主席哈布瑞根表示，從環保觀點來看，垃圾發電的趨勢呈現一個大問題，就是有製造更多垃圾以供發電的壓力。

In a hierarchy of environmental goals, Mr. Haltbrekken said, producing less garbage should take first place, while generating energy from garbage should be at the bottom. “The problem is that our lowest priority conflicts with our highest one,” he said.
哈布瑞根表示，就環保的順序而言，垃圾減量應該是首要目標，垃圾發電則是最底層的做法，「問題是最低順位和最高順位起了衝突。」

In Oslo, households separate their garbage, putting food waste in green plastic bags, plastics in blue bags and glass elsewhere. The bags are handed out free at groceries and other stores.
在奧斯陸，家戶將垃圾分類，廚餘放進綠色塑膠袋，塑膠放入藍色袋子，玻璃另外放。這些袋子在雜貨店和其他商店免費發放。

The larger of Mr. Mikkelsen’s two waste-to-energy plants uses computerized sensors to separate the color-coded garbage bags. The separation of organic garbage, like food waste, has begun enabling Oslo to produce biogas, which is now powering some buses in downtown Oslo.
米克森主管的兩座垃圾發電廠中較大的一座，運用電腦化的感應器將不同顏色的袋子分開處理。把廚餘之類有機垃圾分別出來，已經讓奧斯陸市能夠生產沼氣（生物燃氣），供行駛於市中心的一些公車使用。

Other areas of Europe are producing abundant amounts of garbage, including southern Italy, where cities like Naples paid towns in Germany and the Netherlands to accept garbage, helping to defuse a Neapolitan garbage crisis. Yet though Oslo considered the Italian garbage, it preferred to stick with what it said was the cleaner and safer English waste.
歐洲其他地區製造很多垃圾，像是義大利南部，那不勒斯等城市還得付錢給德國和荷蘭的城鎮幫忙消化部分垃圾，才能化解危機。儘管奧斯陸考慮過義大利的垃圾，最後還是寧可收取奧斯陸認為比較乾淨和安全的英國垃圾。

Mr. Mikkelsen said: “It’s a sensitive question.”
米克森解釋道：「這是個敏感的問題。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/30/world/europe/oslo-copes-with-shortage-of-garbage-it-turns-into-energy.html

2013-06-18聯合報/G9版/UNITEDDAILYNEWS張佑生譯 原文參見紐時週報七版左