Hello. This is 6 Minute English with me, Neil.
And me, Sam.
Today, we’re talking rubbish.
Ooh, that’s a bit harsh – I thought it
was going to be interesting.
I mean our topic is about rubbish, not that
we are rubbish.
I see. Do go on.
Thank you. So the amount of waste we produce
around the world is huge and it’s a
growing problem.
But, there are some things that we can do,
like recycling. Where I live, I can recycle
a lot, and I’m always very careful to separate
- to split my rubbish into paper, metal,
food, plastic and so on.
But is that enough, even if we all do it?
We’ll look a little more at this topic shortly,
but first, as always, a question. Which
country recycles the highest percentage
of its waste? Is it:
A: Sweden, B: Germany, or C: New Zealand
What do you think, Sam?
I’m not sure, but I think it could be Germany
so I’m going to go with that - Germany.
OK. We’ll see if you’re right a little
later on. The BBC radio programme,
Business Daily, recently tackled this topic.
They spoke to Alexandre Lemille, an
expert in this area. Does he think
recycling is the answer? Let’s
hear what he said.
Recycling is not the answer to waste from
an efficient point of view because we are
not able to get all the waste separated
properly and therefore treated in the
background. The main objective of our
model is to hide waste
so we don’t see as urban citizens, or rural
citizens, we don’t see the waste, it is
out of sight and therefore out of mind.
What’s his view of recycling?
I was a bit surprised, because he said
recycling wasn’t the answer. One reason
is that it’s not always possible to separate
waste you can recycle from waste you
can’t recycle, and that makes treating it
very difficult.
'Treating' means handling it and using
different processes, so it can be used again.
And the result is a lot of waste, including
waste that could be recycled but which is
just hidden. And as long as we don’t see
it, we don’t think about it.
And he uses a good phrase to describe
this – out of sight, out of mind. And that’s
true, at least for me. My rubbish and
recycling is collected and I don’t really
think about what happens to it after that.
Is as much of it recycled as I think, or is it
buried, burned or even sent to other
countries? It’s not in front of my house, so
I don’t really think about it – out of sight,
out of mind.
Let’s listen again
Recycling is not the answer to waste from
an efficient point of view because we are
not able to get all the waste separated
properly and therefore treated in the
background. The main objective of our
model is to hide waste so we don’t see as
urban citizens, or rural citizens, we don’t
see the waste, it is out of sight and
therefore out of mind.
One possible solution to this problem is
to develop what is called a circular economy.
Here’s the presenter of Business Daily,
Manuela Saragosa, explaining what that means.
The idea then at the core of a circular
economic and business model is that a
product, like say a washing machine or
even a broom, can always be returned to
the manufacturer to be reused or repaired
before then sold on again. The point is
the manufacturer retains responsibility for
the lifecycle of the product
it produces rather than the consumer
assuming that responsibility when he or
she buys it.
So it seems like a simple idea – though
maybe very difficult to do.
Yes, the idea is that the company that
makes a product, the manufacturer, is
responsible for the product, not the
person who bought it, the consumer.
So, if the product breaks or reaches the
end of its useful life, its lifecycle, then the
manufacturer has to take it back and fix,
refurbish or have it recycled.
I guess this would make manufacturers
try to make their products last longer!
It certainly would. Let’s listen again.
The idea then at the core of a circular
economic and business model is that a
product, like say a washing machine or
even a broom, can always be returned to
the manufacturer to be reused or repaired
before then sold on again. The point is
the manufacturer retains responsibility for
the lifecycle of the product it produces
rather than the consumer assuming
that responsibility when he or she buys it.
That’s just about all we have time for in
this programme. Before we recycle the
vocabulary…
Oh very good Neil!
Before we - thank you Sam - before we recycle
the vocabulary, we need to get the answer
to today’s question. Which country recycles
the highest percentage of its waste? Is it:
A: Sweden, B: Germany or C: New Zealand
Sam, what did you say?
I think it’s Germany.
Well I would like to offer you congratulations
because Germany is the correct answer.
Now let’s go over the vocabulary.
Of course. 'To separate' means to divide or
split different things, for example,
separate your plastic from your paper for
recycling.
'Treating' is the word for dealing with, for
example, recycled waste.
The phrase 'out of sight, out of mind',
means ignoring something or a situation
you can’t see.
A 'manufacturer' is the person or company
that makes something and the consumer
is the person who buys that thing.
And the length of time you can expect a
product to work for is known as its 'lifecycle'.
Well the lifecycle of this programme is 6
minutes, and as we are there, or thereabouts,
it’s time for us to head off. Thanks for
your company and hope you can join us
again soon. Until then, there is plenty
more to enjoy from BBC Learning English
online, on social media and on our app.
Bye for now.
Bye!