Q Does it matter whether or not I wash out food and drinks cans before putting them in the recycling box — and what proportion of all those cans we use is actually recycled?

    A Imagine life as a waste sorter or, perhaps more correctly, a recycling operative. It is early in the morning and you are wading through the Jones’s rubbish. Pick up one tin and you’re splattered with baked beans. Another is half full of old cat food. Meanwhile one of your boots is saturated with left-over canned beer.

    While all tins that go for recycling pass through a washing, heating and crunching process which eliminates contamination from food and other products, most local authorities insist on washed and empty goods. Indeed, many refuse to take soiled tins. This is not only out of kindness to the collectors and sorters: tins with food left in them can smell and attract rats and other animals. Also relatively clean tins make recycling easier and cheaper — an important point in the continuing argument over ever- increasing council tax bills.

    Though we might like to think that we buy more fresh produce these days, our appetite for tinned goods is stronger than ever. Around 12 billion steel food and drink cans — or about 600 per household — are used in the UK each year, plus at least another five billion aluminium drinks cans. Of those amounts, approximately 25 per cent of the steel and 50 per cent of the aluminium cans are recycled.

    Recycling rates are improving, but as in most areas of waste processing, the UK lags well behind many countries in Europe. For example, Switzerland and Finland recycle more than 80 per cent of their tins and cans.

    Most metals can be recycled indefinitely without losing their essential properties and, compared with plastic and many other packaging products, are ideal for recycling. This is particularly true of aluminium. Cans, foil, chocolate wrapping and yoghurt pot tops can be recycled and used time and again. Details of a scheme to encourage more aluminium recycling while at the same time raising cash for various charities can be found at www.alupro.org.uk

    The economic downturn has caused severe problems for recyclers of steel tins, with prices at one stage recently dropping to zero compared with £230 per tonne a year ago. The result is a build-up of stocks in many areas — and all the more reason for washing those tins.

    Recycling companies report that some people put their used tins in the dishwasher: that’s a bit extreme and a waste of energy. A good rinse should be enough.

   問：把裝食物、飲料的罐頭筒放進回收箱前是不是要洗干凈才行？我們用的這些罐頭筒到底有幾成真正被回收？

    答：想象一下這樣的生活吧，你是管廢品分類的，或者更確切一點，是個回收工。你一大早從瓊斯家的垃圾前磕磕絆絆走過去。撿起一只罐頭聽，里邊的燒豆撒了一身；抓起另一只，里邊貓糧還有一半；而這當下，你一只靴子里已經泡滿了誰喝剩的聽裝啤酒。

    雖然說罐頭聽在回收前都要經過清洗、加溫、壓扁等過程，以避免食物和其它制品產生污染，可多數地方政府還是堅持要把罐頭聽先清洗并倒干凈。沒錯兒，有污染的罐頭聽不能收。這不僅是體諒收集和分類的人員(留有食物的罐頭聽有異味，而且招惹老鼠和別的動物)，并且，比較干凈的罐頭聽回收起來更容易、也更經濟(這點很重要，因為關于不斷提高地方稅收(council tax)的爭論一直在繼續)。

    盡管我們可能會認為，現如今會買更新鮮的產品，可跟以前相比我們對罐頭食品的胃口卻更強了。英國每年消耗大概120億鋼罐食物和飲料(每家大約600罐)，加上另外至少50億鋁罐飲料，其中大約25%的鋼罐和50%的鋁罐得到回收。

    回收率是在提高，但在廢品處理的大多數領域，英國比歐洲許多國家落后很多：比如瑞士和芬蘭要多回收80%的聽和罐。

    多數金屬可以無限次地回收而不失其固有物理性質，并且與塑料和其它包裝品相比，金屬是理想的回收品。鋁尤其如此。鋁聽、鋁箔、巧克力包裝及酸奶桶蓋都可以回收并反復使用。有一項方案鼓勵大家回收更多鋁制品，同時給多家慈善機構籌集資金，詳情參見www.alupro.org.uk網站。

    經濟低迷給回收鋼罐的人造成嚴重問題，與一年前每噸230英鎊相比，最近價位降至零。后果是許多地方聽罐庫存增長——所以更有理由清洗這些聽聽罐罐。

    回收公司報導說有人把用過的罐子放到洗碗機里：這有點太過分了，而且浪費能源。洗洗干凈就可以了。