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外卖，今天已经是很多国人，尤其是年轻一代，日常生活中的一部分，但是这给人们生活带来方便的外卖，却也引出了不少问题哦……

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China’s food-delivery business is booming. So is waste

中国外卖行业蒸蒸日上，垃圾也越堆越高

Wooden chopsticks and plastic boxes threaten the environment

木制筷子和塑料盒威胁着环境

【1】THREE couriers in hard helmets cram into an office lift in Beijing—one clad in red, one in yellow and one in blue. The trio are dispatching food that was purchased online through China’s most popular meal-ordering firms, which fill urban roads every midday with their colourful delivery people on electric bicycles. Delivery fees as low as three yuan ($0.46) have helped to transform urban lunch-hours. But the booming business is also fuelling concerns about everything from waste to the abuse of workers.

courier：[ˈkʊriɚ, ˈkə:-, ˈkʌr-] n.导游；（传递信息或重要文件的）信使；通讯员

clad：[klæd] adj.覆盖的；穿衣的 v.穿（衣）( clothe的过去式和过去分词)

trio：[ˈtri:oʊ] n.三重奏；三人一组；三重奏[三重唱]乐曲；（小步舞曲、谐谑曲等的）中段

An Italian trio was heading the bill at the charity event.

一个意大利三重唱在慈善晚会上领衔主演。

dispatch：[dɪ'spætʃ] v. 派遣；发送；迅速完成；处死 n. 急件；派遣；发送

midday：[ˌmɪdˈdeɪ] n.中午；正午 adj.正午的

三个头戴钢盔的快递员挤入北京一个写字楼的电梯里，一个穿红色衣服，一个穿黄色衣服，还有一个穿蓝色衣服。这三个人正在送餐——顾客在网上通过中国最受欢迎的订餐公司订的食物。每天中午，城市街道上都能看到这些衣着鲜艳的送货员骑着电动车来来往往。运送费最低是三元（合0.46美元），这有助于调节城市午餐时间。但是随着这个行业的蒸蒸日上，人们对废品和虐待工人等问题的担忧也与日俱增。

［2］Such services—which enable users of a single site to order food from a swathe of local restaurants—are expanding around the world. But in China the industry is on a tear. By the end of June, the number of registered users had risen to 295m, 40% more than at the end of last year, according to government analysts. The value of meals bought online was about $25bn in 2016 and could rise to around $36bn by the end of next year, says iiMedia, a research firm. The market leaders are Meituan and Ele.me. Both still make losses in food delivery, but they have backing from Tencent and Alibaba respectively—tech giants eager to find ways of pushing customers to their duelling online payment systems.

enable：[ɪˈneɪbl] v.使能够，提供做…的权利；使可能

swathe：[sweɪð] vt.用布裹，缠；包裹或压缩 n.带子，绷带，包装品;

She sat in the sofa, swathed in a blanket.

她坐在沙发上，身上裹着一条毛毯。

market leaders：(某一产品或服务的)市场领先者，市场领导者，行业龙头

backing：[ˈbækɪŋ] n.支持；背衬；支持者

respectively：[rɪˈspektɪvli] adv.各自地；各个地；分别地

giant：[ˈdʒaɪənt] n.巨人，大汉；卓越人物

eager：[ˈi:gə(r)] adj.急切；渴望的；热心的；热切的

duel：[ˈdju:əl] n.决斗；竞争，斗争 vt.使（另一人）参加决斗；反对

通过这种服务，用户可以在网站上订到当地一些餐馆的餐。全球范围内，订餐行业方兴未艾。但在中国，这个行业已经十分兴旺。根据政府分析人士，截止六月底，注册用户数上升到2.95亿，比去年年底注册人数多了40%。研究公司艾媒咨询说，2016年网上订餐的价值约有250亿美元，明年年底大概能上升到360亿美元。美团和饿了么是该行业两大龙头。这两家仍会面临食品配送造成的损失，但是他们已经分别得到腾讯和阿里巴巴的支持。腾讯和阿里巴巴是两家科技巨头，他们的在线支付系统处于激烈竞争中，双方都急于找到方法推动用户使用自己的系统。

［3］Such businesses first began to take off in student dormitories.These days young office-workers are by far the biggest market. But there is much hand-wringing about the consequences of their popularity. Officials say the couriers threaten road safety. They ride electric bikes which are cheap, need no licence and are handy in cities like Beijing that restrict the use of motorcycles. Delivery people often mount pavements or drive against the flow of traffic to maximise earnings during the lunchtime rush. Last month officials in Nanjing said meal-delivery bikes in the eastern city had been involved in more than 3,000 accidents in the first six months of the year. In one district of Shanghai police have introduced a penalty-points system. They order those who acquire a certain number of points to perform community service. The police can ask couriers’ employers to fire them.

these days：n.现在，目前

hand-wringing：n.绝望；焦虑；坐立不安

popularity：[ˌpɑ:pjuˈlærəti] n.普及；流行；名气，名望，通俗性，大众性

mount：[maʊnt] v. 登上；爬上

pavement：[ˈpeɪvmənt] n.人行道

penalty：[ˈpenəlti] n.刑罚；惩罚

这个行业从学生宿舍赚到第一桶金。现在，年轻的上班族是最大的市场群体。但是这个群体普及的后果却让人十分担忧。官员称送餐员威胁到了道路安全。他们骑的电动车便宜、无需牌照，在北京这样限制摩托车使用的城市十分方便。午餐时间，送餐员为了获得最多的收入，常常在人行道上行驶或者疾行于车流中。上个月，南京官员称，今年上半年东部城市的送餐车卷入了3000多起交通事故。在上海的一个区，警察引入了扣分制度。他们命令那些积分达到一定值的人做社区服务。警察可以要求快递公司的雇主解雇这些送餐员。

［4］Another worry is the welfare of delivery people, many of whom are migrants from the countryside. In several ways they have it easier than other types of courier: food boxes are easier to handle than bulky parcels, and the recipients are always there. But China Labour Bulletin, an NGO in Hong Kong, says meal deliverers have been staging growing numbers of protests about poor treatment by their employers (usually subcontractors), including wages paid late. Linking their pay to customer ratings has also made it easy for customers to demand more of them than they should: the purchase of groceries en route to their destinations, for example, or the disposal of household rubbish.

migrant：[ˈmaɪɡrənt] n.候鸟；移居者，移民；随季节迁移的工作者

bulky：[ˈbʌlki] adj.笨重的;庞大的;体积大的

parcel：[ˈpɑ:rsl] n.包袱，包裹；（土地的）一块；一批，一群；（货物的）一宗 vt. 分配；打包

We are sending you a parcel of samples.

我们现在寄给你一包样品。

recipient：[rɪˈsɪpiənt] n.接受者；容器；容纳者

subcontractor：[sʌbˈkɑ:ntræktə(r)] n.转包商，次承包者

en route：[en ru:t] 在途中

另一个担忧是送餐员的福利得不到保障，送餐员中很多是来自农村的流动工人。在某些方面，他们比其他类型的快递员轻松：食品箱比大包裹好拿，收件人总会在那里。但是香港的一个非政府组织中国劳工通讯说，送餐员已经提出越来越多的抗议——雇主（通常是分包商）给他们的待遇差，包括拖欠工资等。将他们的工资和顾客的评级联系起来，使得顾客更容易向他们提出过分的要求，例如，在前往目的地途中购买杂货，或者是清理家庭垃圾。

［5］Most hotly debated of late is the impact the business is having on the environment. Each day about 65m meal-containers are discarded, by one estimate. Campaigners object to the unwanted cutlery,napkins and chopsticks that restaurants selling through online platforms habitually bundle with orders. The Green Volunteer League of Chongqing, a Chinese NGO, says that food-delivery sites have not made it easy enough for customers to refuse such sundries (the big companies deny this). In September a court in Beijing agreed to examine whether they have violated consumers’ rights.

container：[kənˈteɪnə(r)] n.容器；箱，匣

cutlery：[ˈkʌtləri] n.刀具，刀叉

napkin：[ˈnæpkɪn] n.尿布；餐巾，餐巾纸

habitually：[hə'bɪtʃʊəlɪ] adv.习惯地，惯常地

bundle：['bʌndl] n. 捆；束；包；大笔钱 v. 捆；把 ... 扎成一捆；匆忙地走

sundry：[ˈsʌndri] adj.各式各样的；杂多的

My wallet is filled with sundry items.

我的钱包装满了各种杂七杂八的东西。

近来最激烈的争论是关于这个行业对环境的影响。据估计，每天有大约6500万份餐具被丢弃。在线平台上，餐馆常常将订单和不必要的刀具、餐巾和筷子捆绑销售，活动家们对此表示反对。重庆绿色志愿者联盟（一个中国非政府组织）称，食品配送网站并没有让顾客易于拒绝这种杂货（那些大公司否认这一点）。九月，北京的一家法院同意调查他们是否侵犯了消费者权益。

［6］ There would be much less reason to worry about the mountains of waste if households and local governments did a better job of keeping recyclables separate from gunk. This year the central government ordered 46 cities to come up with new systems for sorting rubbish, which it talks of making mandatory by 2020. That is progress, but only if it is unwavering: over the years officials have found several similar campaigns all too easy to throw out.

recyclable：[ˌri:ˈsaɪkləbl] n.可回收物（通常以复数形式出现） adj.可循环再用的

We need a separate bin for recyclable waste products.

我们需要一个专门收集可回收废弃物的垃圾桶。

gunk：[ɡʌŋk] n.无特殊形状的一堆，黏性物质

mandatory：[ˈmændətəri] adj.强制的;命令的;受委托的

unwavering：[ʌnˈweɪvərɪŋ] adj.不动摇的，坚定的

如果家庭和当地政府能在区分可回收物和其他废品上做的更好一些，我们也就不必这么担心堆积如山的垃圾了。今年，中央政府命令46个城市想出新的垃圾分类系统，并使其在2020年前投入实行。这是一个进步，但前提是这个政策不会动摇：多年以来，官员们注意到几项类似的运动都被很容易地流产了。

如今美团和饿了么都已经推出了环保助力活动，鼓励大家减少使用一次性餐具，这是一个好兆头。但是正如文中所说，想要解决垃圾污染问题，根本在于如何有效回收处理废物。设计合理的垃圾分类系统并确保实行，应是我们未来努力的方向。

英文原文：

http://www.economist.com

讲解：霞姐 / Tiassa / Angel

编排 / 校对：Angel

本次文章翻译为魔力学院原创

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