passage

Early in the age of affluence（富裕）that followed World War II, an American retailing analyst named Victor Lebow proclaimed, \consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption...We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced and discarded at an ever increasing rate.\ Americans have responded to Lebow's call, and much of the world has followed. Consumption has become a central pillar of life in industrial lands and is even embedded in social values. Opinion surveys in the world's two largest economies-Japan and the United States-show consumerist definitions of success becoming ever more prevalent. Overconsumption by the world's fortunate is an environmental problem unmatched in severity by anything but perhaps population growth. Their surging exploitation of resources threatens to exhaust or unalterably spoil forests, soils, water, air and climate. Ironically, high consumption may by a mixed blessing in human terms, too. The time-honored values of integrity of character, good work, friendship, family and community have often been sacrificed in the rush to riches. Thus many in the industrial lands have a sense that their world, of plenty is somehow hollow-that, misled by a consumerist culture, they have been fruitlessly attempting to satisfy what are essentially social. psychological and spiritual needs with material things. Of course,. the opposite of overconsumption-poverty-is no solution to either environmental or human problems. It is infinitely worse for people and bad for the natural world too. Dispossessed(被剥夺得一无所有的) peasants slash-and-burn their way into the rain forests of Latin American, and hungry nomads (游牧民族) turn their herds out onto fragile African grassland, reducing it co desert. If environmental destruction results when people have either too little or too much, we arc left to wonder how much is enough. What level of consumption can the earth support? When does having more cease to add noticeably to human satisfaction?

New York's population is almost 8.5 million people. And every day,every resident literally leaves behind a pile a garbage. Where does much of that trash go? To the Sims Municipal Recycling Facility in Brooklyn,which features the latest technology in garbage processing. Every month,the facility processes 20,000 tons of metal,plastic and glass. The city's recycling program encourages New Yorkers to sort bottles and cans into separate bags. City garbage collection services bring the bags here. But only about 20 percent of New Yorkers sort their garbage for recycling. Sims General Manager Tom Outerbridge says that's because of the city's diverse population and high turnover. “All of these create challenges for recycling programs that you may not have in a more suburban homogenous society. But given those challenges,the city does quite well.\A huge magnet pulls out items that have iron in them and diverts them to a separate conveyor. And this piece of equipment breaks glass that “floats” in another direction. \panels inside that are moving like this. Two dimensional things get walked up the panels,like paper,plastic bags,when three dimensional things,like bottles and cans,get rolled down the panels.\Optic scanners,which cost about 100,000,are the most technologically-advanced part of the process. They are programmed to identify certain types of objects,like plastic water and milk bottles. When the scanner “sees” one,it signals dozens of air fountains on the conveyor belt,to blow it onto a separate conveyor. \are working with materials that everybody says is garbage,but it's recyclable things.\

final product-pressed bales of plastic and metal,each weighing up to half a ton. Sims Recycling sells the bales to industrial plants where new bottles and cans are made for New Yorkers to use again. \are just making the Earth a better place. We are helping each other survive. I think that's the best part.\Sims also sets an example by its own environmental consciousness. It has solar panels on the roof and a wind turbine right in front of the entrance. Together,they provide up to 20 percent of the energy needed for the plant's operations.