Steven Stein likes to follow garbage trucks. His strange habit makes sense when you consider that he's an environmental scientist who studies how to reduce litter, including things that fall off garbage trucks as they drive down the road. What is even more interesting is that one of Stein's jobs is defending an industry behind the plastic shopping bags.
史蒂文·斯坦喜欢跟着垃圾车。当你考虑到他是一位研究如何减少垃圾，包括垃圾车在路上行驶时掉落的东西的环境学家的时候，他的奇怪习惯就变得合理了。更有趣的是，斯坦斯的工作之一是在塑料购物袋背后捍卫一个行业。
Americans use more than 100 billion thin film plastic bags every year. So many end up in tree branches or along highways that a growing number of cities do not allow them at checkouts. The bags are prohibited in some 90 cities in California, including Los Angeles. Eyeing these headwinds, plastic-bag makers are hiring scientists like Stein to make the case that their products are not as bad for the planet as most people assume.
美国人每年使用薄膜塑料袋超过1000亿个。很多散落在枝头或公路沿途，所以越来越多的城市不允许结账时使用。加州有90个城市禁止使用塑料袋，包括洛杉矶。考虑到这些不利因素，塑料袋制造商正在雇佣像斯坦因这样的科学家来证明他们的产品并不像大多数人想象的那样对地球有害。
Among the bag makers' argument: many cities with bans still allow shoppers to purchase paper bags, which are easily recycled but require more energy to produce and transport. And while plastic bags may be ugly to look at, they represent a small percentage of all garbage on the ground today.
塑料袋制造商的论点之一是：许多有禁令的城市允许购物者购买纸袋，纸袋容易回收，但生产和运输需要更多的能源。虽然塑料袋看起来很难看，但它们只占今天地面上所有垃圾的一小部分。
The industry has also taken aim at the product that has appeared as its replacement: reusable shopping bags. The stronger a reusable bag is, the longer its life and the more plastic-bag use it cancels out. However, longer-lasting reusable bags often require more energy to make. One study found that a cotton bag must be used at least 131 times to be better for the planet than plastic.
该行业还瞄准了作为替代品出现的产品：可重复使用的购物袋。可重复使用的袋子越结实，使用寿命越长，可以抵消的塑料袋使用才越多。然而，更持久的可重复使用的袋子通常需要更多的能量来制造。一项研究发现，棉布袋必须至少使用131次，才能比塑料袋对地球更好。
Environmentalists don't dispute these points. They hope paper bags will be banned someday too and want shoppers to use the same reusable bags for years.
环保人士对这些观点没有异议。他们希望有一天纸袋也将被禁止，并希望购物者可以多年使用同样的可重复使用袋子。
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