China News Service, July 18 (Bian Lei) The topic of garbage has been on the hot search on Weibo again. On the 17th, an intriguing list was released, and Canada became the country with the highest per capita garbage production#. In people's impression, Canada, a developed country, has always been clean and environmentally friendly, which some people lamented was unexpected. Bulgaria and the United States followed closely behind, ranking second and third on the per capita garbage production list.

Of course, per capita garbage production is related to many factors such as the total amount of garbage and the total population of a country. This indicator cannot be generalized, but from environmental pollution to transnational garbage, to garbage classification...Recently, the topic of garbage has become increasingly popular on people's social topic list.

And there is only one reason behind this: protecting the ecology. There is really not much time left for humans.

[01. Burdened with "blood debt"]

In April 2019, a pregnant sperm whale died in a port in Italy.

Then, the cause of its death was announced: about 45 kilograms of plastic waste was found in its stomach.

A month later, another sperm whale, about 6 years old, died on the beach after swallowing plastic.

Originally, a sperm whale can live to 70 years old.

On the other side of the ocean, in July, nine deer died tragically in Nara Park, Japan, after swallowing too many plastic bags.

A staff member said: "One of the nine deer (stomach) was found to have the most garbage, weighing 4.3 kilograms."

And most of these plastic bags were "gifts" left by foreign tourists.

Such things happen every day, and such harm is not limited to this.

In May, American explorer Vescovo was also questioned, "What kind of garbage is this?"

Because, in addition to discovering some unique creatures, he was also surprised to find plastic bags and candy wrappers floating in the trench.

You should know that the depth of the Mariana Trench is higher than the altitude of Mount Everest, the highest peak on Earth.

In places where humans have not yet set foot, garbage has already taken a step forward to occupy a place.

Coincidentally, due to the continuous climbing of Mount Everest by humans, the increase in human activities has led to increasingly serious ecological problems, and the "Roof of the World" has been polluted by garbage. The governments of Nepal and China have successively implemented regulations to regulate the environment of Mount Everest and reduce garbage pollution. Nepal requires each climber to bring back 8 kilograms of garbage when going down the mountain.

These thrown away garbage will eventually return to humans in another way.

According to research from the University of Newcastle in Australia, plastic pollution has already invaded the human body.

In today's era, the average person in the world consumes nearly 5 grams of microplastics per week, which is about the same as a credit card.

In human food, crustaceans, beer and salt also have high levels of microplastic particles.

A Japanese team confirmed that harmful chemicals in microplastic waste in the ocean will continue to accumulate after being absorbed into organisms such as shellfish.

The harm caused by these plastic wastes is just the tip of the iceberg.

¡¾02. Garbage Siege¡¿

In 2018, the world's electronic waste totaled 48.5 million tons, which is about the total weight of commercial aircraft manufactured by humans;

Every year, the world uses about 5 trillion plastic bags. If they are laid out one by one, the area can cover two France;

Every year, the world produces an average of about 2.1 billion tons of garbage, enough to fill 820,000 Olympic swimming pools...

In the battle with garbage, humans have long been surrounded by enemies. But looking around the world, many countries are still on the road to cultivating awareness of garbage disposal.

The US population accounts for about 4% of the world's population, but the report shows that it produces 12% of the total waste each year. And its garbage recycling rate is also among the worst among developed countries.

But many countries have come back from the "game" with garbage and actively taken action.

Starting in 2019, China will no longer accept "foreign garbage." In the past 20 years, about half of the world's recyclables were shipped to China.

Then, Southeast Asia also swept the trend of "returning garbage":

In June, a batch of garbage that had been stranded in the Philippines for 5 to 6 years and once caused disputes was shipped back to Canada;

In the same month, the leaders of the 10 ASEAN countries passed the "Bangkok Declaration" to combat marine garbage, vowing to act together to reduce marine garbage in the region;

In July, the Indonesian government said it would send more than 210 tons of garbage back to Australia...

However, to solve the plastic waste problem faced by all mankind, just returning the garbage is far from enough.

How long does it take for an ordinary plastic bottle to be completely decomposed from being discarded? The answer is 450 to 500 years.

The World Wildlife Fund launched a live broadcast in March, which will continue for 450 years to show the decomposition process of plastic bottles.

I wonder what kind of garbage we have become after 450 years?

¡¾03. So, what does this have to do with garbage sorting? ¡¿

When we roll up our sleeves and get into the garbage dump to try to sort it, we may all have the above questions.

In order to use recycled metals to make medals for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Japan has sorted and recycled small household appliances and mobile phones from various places, and extracted about 32 kilograms of gold, 3,500 kilograms of silver and 2,200 kilograms of copper.

British researchers are studying the use of kitchen waste to maintain soil health.

This project will be able to cope with a large amount of topsoil degradation in the world.

Researchers at Rice University in the United States have discovered a way to recycle lithium-ion batteries.

This means that new batteries may be made from old batteries.

People all over the world are exploring the meaning of garbage, and garbage recycling is the first step.

Of course, this does not mean that only recycling and turning waste into treasure are the core of garbage sorting, because the recycling of some garbage may not be worth the loss.

Therefore, this step is more about reducing the pressure of final disposal of garbage and solving the dilemma.

Can you imagine the scene where animals shuttle through the smelly garbage mountain and there are more garbage than fish in the water?

Although I didn¡¯t see it with my own eyes, I should also feel panic.

Have you sorted your garbage today?

[Top 10 countries in terms of per capita garbage production]

First place: Canada

Per capita garbage production is 36.1 tons, and the annual production is about 1.33 billion tons of garbage

Second place: Bulgaria

Per capita garbage production is 26.7 tons, and the annual production is about 190 million tons of garbage

Third place: United States

Per capita garbage production is 25.9 tons, and the annual production is about 8.43 billion tons of garbage

Fourth place: Estonia

Per capita garbage production is 23.5 tons, and the annual production is about 30.912 million tons of garbage

Fifth place: Finland

Per capita garbage production is 16.6 tons, and the annual production is about 91.698 million tons of garbage

Sixth place : Armenia

Per capita garbage production is 16.3 tons, and annual production is about 47.889 million tons of garbage

Seventh place: Sweden

Per capita garbage production is 16.2 tons, and annual production is about 160 million tons of garbage

Eighth place: Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

Per capita garbage production is 11.8 tons, and annual production is about 7.017 million tons of garbage

Ninth place: Ukraine

Per capita garbage production is 10.6 tons, and annual production is about 470 million tons of garbage

Tenth place: Republic of Serbia

Per capita garbage production is 8.9 tons, and annual production is about 62.27 million tons of garbage

Editor's note: The above ranking is calculated according to the 24/7Tempo big data analysis platform, based on 2017 and other comprehensive years.

Plastic Industry Video