据世界银行2018年的数据统计，全球每年仅城市生活垃圾就有20亿吨。
如果不采取行动，预计到2025年，全球每年的城市垃圾总量将增加70%，达到将近34亿吨。
中国为什么要开始垃圾分类？中国如何应对垃圾引起的环境问题？请点击上方视频，观看“中国为什么能”系列之“垃圾分类”篇。
Imagine you are in the UK, or the U.S., and just had a sweet, sweet ice-cream. You licked some off your finger and tastes great.
Now you have a wood stick in your hand. What are you going to do with it?
To the dustbin it goes, right? But what will happen to the stick when your garbage gets collected, and arrives the waste management site?
In 2015, chances are it will be shipped to China with a whole bunch of other garbage.
从1995年到2016年，中国每年进口的垃圾从450万吨增长到4500万吨，翻了十倍。
中国之所以大规模进口垃圾，是为了从固体废物中提取原料，如废金属、废纸等，以缓解工业快速发展中的原料危机。
但同时，这些垃圾也对环境造成了破坏，制约了中国的可持续发展。自2018年1月，中国开始全面禁止进口24种“洋垃圾”，包含生活来源废塑料、钒渣、未经分拣的废纸和废纺织原料等高污染固体废物。
中国的这一举措使得美国废品回收站堆积如山，而欧盟决定对塑料征税。
为了解决越发重要的环境问题，中国提出了生态文明的概念，不让任何人掉队，以真正关切到每个人的利益。
中国还运用自身的技术和能力帮助其他地区提高处理垃圾的能力，以更好地解决垃圾问题。
Because China wants resources. The fast-growing country lacks all the necessary resources to keep its large population working. The Chinese want resources so badly that it doesn't care if it has to search for them through your waste.
That's why the Chinese have been importing waste from the U.S., Europe and other places around the world for decades.
And your ice-cream stick may have become a fraction of the wooden floor in the home of a random Chinese family.
Sources of plastic waste imports into China in 2016 and cumulative plastic waste export tonnage (in million MT) in 1988–2016. /Science Advances-UGA Graphics
Sounds OK, right? Unfortunately, this recycling model will not last forever, because waste is still waste. After extracting all the reusable things, there is still garbage that's doomed to be buried underground. And those things are polluting China.
China does have a lot of free land, but it also has a large population. China is feeding 1/5 of all human beings with 1/15 of the land on Earth. It's a hard job that is made even harder due to imported waste.
And now China is fed up. The country started limiting waste imports roughly since 2016 and completely banned 24 types of solid waste in January 2018.
It's easy to understand: You can't expect China to deal with the world's garbage forever. You need to deal with it on your own, one day or another.
中国政府把生态环境保护当成是功在当代、利在千秋的事业。2014年，政府提出向污染“宣战”，立志打好大气、 水、土壤污染防治“三大战役”，而对废弃物垃圾的处理，是打好这三大战役的关键。
除了把“洋垃圾”拒之国门外，中国还在垃圾处理上采取更多的行动，这其中包括——垃圾分类。
在垃圾处理厂，垃圾将经过焚烧处理，焚烧产生的烟气经过净化处理系统达标处理以后，被排放到大气当中。如果我们能在前端做好垃圾分类，将降低垃圾发电厂处理垃圾的难度。
再者，垃圾分类还有利于回收利用一些有价值的废弃物。
But to stop the imports is not enough for China to become sustainable. Now the country is targeting its own people to prevent pollution. One of the first steps is forced garbage classification. Sort the garbage, then we can talk about recycling.
Shanghai is the first city to try this by dividing all trash carts in the city into four kinds: Dry, wet, hazardous and recyclable.
Volunteers and a waste sorter ready to help residents sort trash in a Shanghai neighborhood. /CGTN Photo
The policy has had a great impact on residents' lifestyles and memes about garbage sorting are flying all around the Chinese-language internet.
Though the debate about Shanghai's garbage sorting policy is still going on, China's central government is determined to implement similar policies across the country.德国、瑞典、日本等国家被认为是世界上垃圾回收率最高的国家，但他们花了几十年才做到。
中国面临着一个特殊的情况——中式烹饪产生的厨余垃圾和西方不同，食物残渣中成分更复杂、更难处理。要实现垃圾分类，需要大规模的教育运动、人们强烈的意愿、来自政府的大量资金以及不同的法律框架以保证实施和执行。
需要更多的人意识到，可持续消费的生活方式是减少和解决这些垃圾问题的关键。