听力来源：NPR，仅用于个人英语学习。
小建议：请到NPR官网-本音频页面聆听或下载本音频。先花10分钟听两遍音频，再看文本，效果更佳。
内容简介：有关塑料袋的讨论，各抒己见。为了便于直观理解，我在网上找了各种购物袋包装放在文中。
Why Banning Plastic Grocery Bags Could Be A Bad Move
May 23, 2019
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: Plastic bags, as you may know, have a bad reputation. They're not biodegradable. They're seen as a toxic pollutant that can do great harm to wildlife. Some states and hundreds of cities have now passed bans on plastic bags or demanding a fee if you use one. But those bans may be having unintended consequences. NPR Newsletter Editor Greg Rosalsky joined Stacey Vanek Smith on our podcast The Indicator from NPR's Planet Money to explain.
STACEY VANEK SMITH, BYLINE: Your newsletter - it was like a love letter to the plastic bag.
GREG ROSALSKY, BYLINE: Yeah, love letter might be a little much. I do love plastic bags, though, I do.
VANEK SMITH: So tell us what you found.
ROSALSKY: So I talked to this economist. Her name's Rebecca Taylor. Taylor recently published this super interesting study about bag bans in California.
REBECCA TAYLOR: What I found was that sales of garbage bags actually skyrocketed after plastic carry-out bags were banned.
ROSALSKY: So people would reuse their bags to, like, line trash bins...
VANEK SMITH: Oh, I do that.
ROSALSKY: Do you use them to pick up dog poop? Because that's another common thing...
VANEK SMITH: I don't have a dog (laughter).
ROSALSKY: I don't either. But all these people who reuse their plastic bags - they still needed bags.
TAYLOR: Small garbage bags - they went up by 120% - their sales did. Medium bags went up by 60%.
ROSALSKY: And so here's the crucial thing that she told me. Garbage bags are actually thicker than shopping bags, so they use more plastic.
TAYLOR: I find that about 30% of the plastic that was eliminated by banning carry-out bags comes back in the form of thicker garbage bags.
ROSALSKY: But here's the thing. These bans didn't apply to paper bags.
VANEK SMITH: OK.
ROSALSKY: And that led to a huge increase of paper use.
VANEK SMITH: I always get paper grocery bags.
ROSALSKY: OK. Stacey, so like, please, like, do not hate me for pointing this out...
VANEK SMITH: OK.
ROSALSKY: But so, actually, there are multiple studies - they all show that, actually, paper bags are worse for the environment than plastic.
VANEK SMITH: Really?
ROSALSKY: Yeah. So paper bags have this one really great thing for them, which is they are biodegradable. They will eventually break down. But you have to use way more energy to create them. So we have a major uptick of trash bag sales, and then we have a major uptick of paper bag use. That's why Taylor says banning plastic shopping bags ends up increasing greenhouse gas emissions.
VANEK SMITH: So I would say this leaves us with nothing, but there is a kind of bag that I use all the time. And, you know, this is public radio, so we cannot have this conversation without bringing up the noble tote bag.
ROSALSKY: Stacey, no. I don't want to have to say this but I have to. There's a study from the U.K. government. And they found a person would have to use a cotton tote bag 131 times before it was better for climate change than using a plastic grocery bag once.
VANEK SMITH: What? OK, Greg. But, like, we can't just carry things around in our arms. Like, what are we supposed to do?
ROSALSKY: You should reuse the same bag over and over again. Now, that bag should probably not be organic cotton. Use one that's, like, polyester or a somewhat durable plastic.
But then there's kind of the broader policy question. Taylor thinks a fee is smarter than a ban. That's because they're both equally effective when it comes to the goal of encouraging reuse.
TAYLOR: So about 50% of customers begin using reusable bags under both a ban and under a fee.
(SOUNDBITE OF KOLOTO'S "MECHANICA")
ROSALSKY: So impose a fee and encourage reuse.
VANEK SMITH: Stacey Vanek Smith.
ROSALSKY: Greg Rosalsky, NPR News.
知识点笔记：
1.had a bad reputation臭名昭著
reputation: 名声
e.g.1.This college has a good academic reputation...
2.The stories ruined his reputation.
2.biodegradable.后面有一句恰好对此进行了解释：They will eventually break down.
3.having unintended consequences;意料之外的结果
后面有一句使用end up也表达了类似的意思:...banning plastic shopping bags ends up increasing greenhouse gas emissions. end up是高频词，见过多次了。
4.Your newsletter - it was like a love letter to the plastic bag. 这是一句风趣的说法，将这位嘉宾的通讯比喻成给塑料袋的情书，指他为塑料袋说了不少好话。
5.skyrocket：构词sky+rocket,火箭飞上天，引申为价格、数量等剧增、暴涨。
e.g.1.Production has dropped while prices and unemployment have skyrocketed.
2....the skyrocketing costs of health care.
这个词很形象，回忆复习一下早两天学习的freefall也是如此，只是方向向下、暴跌
e.g.(190525)...if stocks are in a freefall, they might fall farther.
6.两个表示不同意对方观点，提出异议的委婉说法：
- please, like, do not hate me for pointing this out...;
- I don't want to have to say this but I have to.
7.uptick:股票交易报升（较前一交易日上升），意为上升
e.g.1.Officials claim Madrid is already noticing last quarter's uptick in Spain's economy.
2.Dallas has seen an uptick in applications since its officers were attacked.
8.嘉宾的最终观点：You should reuse the same bag over and over again. Now, that bag should probably not be organic cotton. Use one that's, like, polyester or a somewhat durable plastic.
嗯，依此来看，我想到了国内常见的买菜购物车，环保又实用，或许这是一个商机？哈哈。您有什么看法？欢迎留言评论。
后记:巧合的是，月婵娟仙女今天也发了一篇有关塑料垃圾的文章。人类的行为在不知不觉中已对环境造成了许多无法想象的影响和后果。为了我们的家园，为了同样居住在地球的许多物种，从你我做起，从小事开始改变，尽可能环保一些。文章链接:https://www.jianshu.com/p/5e94e32f122a。