你的午餐 “污染地球” 吗？Is your lunch costing the earth?丨随身英语
6
2-2020
晚上好！欢迎收听今天的BBC英语
现代人从餐厅或外卖店购买午餐已经是家常便饭了，但这种习惯可能正在对地球造成破坏，因为购买外卖食品会产生很多食品包装垃圾。那么如何减少由于买外带食品而带来的垃圾呢？本集《随身英语》介绍一些商家为了鼓励减少一次性餐具的使用而向顾客推出的促销活动。
A lunch break — it's an important and often necessary part of our working or school day. It's a chance to stop your tummy rumbling, grab a bite to eat and maybe chat with some friends. And now we're spoilt with an array of places to buy our lunch from, all offering tempting dishes and humble sandwiches to eat on the go.
But our appetite for buying our lunchtime fare is not just costing us money, there might be a cost in terms of damaging our planet too. Just grabbing a sandwich, crisps and maybe a cake and coffee can produce at least four items of waste. Cartons, cups, wrappers and plastic cutlery are all part of our disposable feast in addition to the food waste we create. Some experts say throwing away food, which produces methane as it rots, is a bigger cause of climate change than plastics.
But regardless of what causes the most damage, the solution, according to an environmental campaign group called Hubbub, is to eat packed lunches. Tessa Tricks from the group says "people are saying that they are buying food to take out because life has got busier". And she says people think they are being more efficient; but she argues that it's usually healthier and cheaper to make your own lunch. It means you can eat the things you really want and make the quantity that you actually need.
Of course, preparing your lunch is another thing to fit into your morning scramble of getting ready for work, so if you haven't got time and you are going to buy lunch, an alternative Hubbub suggests is to take your own container to a shop and ask them to put your food in it. The idea of using reusable coffee cups for hot drinks and refilling water bottles has already proved successful, so this could be another step in the right direction. A trial in East Anglia (in the UK) showed that offering a 10 percent price reduction did persuade some customers to come prepared with their own lunch box.
The problem with eating on the move is that you might want to carry your grub in something that is disposable, so it's a good idea to make sure it's something that is recyclable and not to take extra sachets of sauce or utensils that you're not going to use. The message seems to be that if we give our lunchtime eating habits some thought, we can all do our bit in helping reduce climate change and damage to our environment. That is something for all of us to chew on!
词汇表
lunch break
午餐休息
grab a bite to eat
吃点儿东西
dish
（一道）菜
sandwich
三明治
on the go
外带，在路上吃
appetite
食欲，胃口
fare
（由指饭馆里的）饭菜
carton
硬纸盒，塑料盒
wrapper
包装纸，包装材料
cutlery
餐具（刀、叉、匙等）
disposable
一次性的
feast
（讽刺的）“盛宴”
packed lunch
（自带）盒装午餐
container
（餐）盒，容器
reusable
可重复使用的
lunch box
饭盒
grub
食物
sachet
（仅够用一次的）小包，小袋
utensil
厨房用具
chew on
仔细考虑，好好想想
*本文章由BBC英语教学授权，任何媒体禁止转载。点击这里获取更多BBC英语文章