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People didn't use to throw things away. They used to mend their clothes
and reused them until they wore out. When they bought things, they used to
carry shopping baskets. But now we don't reuse things well and more
rubbish has been produced. We throw away 25 million tones of waste in
our dustbins every year. That means one family throw away about one
thousand kilos of waste.
We have a strong reason to take it as a serious problem! The fact is that
lots of rubbish we throw away could be reused or recycled. The so-called
rubbish isn't really rubbish.
The UK is one of the worst recyclers in Europe. In other words, in the
UK they're recycling only about 8% of their everyday waste. That's much
less than many other countries. Germany recycles 10%, while Japan
recycles 40%. The government has set a goal of recycling 30% of their
everyday waste by the year 2010. But it looks that it is not easy to reach it.
As we know, some habits are difficult to change and some collection plans
are expensive to carry out.
At present, the movement called Recycle Now in the UK tries to change
that situation. The Top designer Oliver Heath is a strong fan of the movement.
In 2005 he designed the first home built completely from recycled things,
including metal cans and glass bottles. "It always makes me excited when
I make good use of those recycled things," he said, "Maybe in the near future,
you can also make something from recycled computer printers, plastic bags,
bottle tops or CDs." When his story was reported on TV, more and more
people begin to try his ideas.
Some local governments have set up recycling centers where it's easy for
families to take their empty bottles and old newspapers. Instead of throwing
away the so-called rubbish, some families start doing more about it.
With the effort of the whole country, we are happy to see some progress
in some places in the UK.
1. Do people produce more rubbish than before?
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2. Why does the writer think rubbish is a serious problem?
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3. According to the passage, can the UK recycle 30% of their everyday waste
or not?
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4. How does Oliver Heath feel when he turns recycled things into something
useful?
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5. What conclusion can you get about the recycling work in the UK?
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