In 1993, New York State ordered stores to charge a deposit on beverage containers. Within a year, consumers had returned millions of aluminum(铝)cans and glass and plastic bottles. Plenty of companies were eager to accept the aluminum and glass as raw materials for new products, but because few could figure out what to do with the plastic, much of it would be buried in landfills(垃圾填埋场). The problem was not limited to New York. Unfortunately, there were too few uses for second-hand plastic.
Today, one out of five plastic soda bottles is recycled in the United States. The reason for the change is that now there are dozens of companies across the country buying discarded plastic soda bottles and turning them into fence posts, paint brushes, etc.
As the New York experience shows, recycling involves more than simply separating valuable materials from the rest of the rubbish. A discard remains a discard until somebody figures out how to give it a second life and until economic arrangements exist to give that second life value. Without adequate markets to absorb materials collected for recycling, throwaways, actually depress prices for used materials.
Shrinking landfill space, and rising costs for burying and burning rubbish are forcing local governments to look more closely at recycling. In many areas, the East Coast especially, recycling is already the least expensive waste management option. For every ton of waste recycled, a city avoids paying for its disposal, which, in parts of New York, amounts to saving of more than $100 per ton. Recycling also stimulates the local economy by creating jobs and trims the pollution control and energy costs of industries that make recycled products by giving them a more refined raw material.
What regulation was issued by New York State concerning beverage containers?
文章开头指出，纽约政府下令饮料瓶要收押金。这句 话其实可引申出两层意思：一方面，消费者需要为饮料瓶付款；另一 方面，当他们送回饮料瓶时，他们可收回为饮料瓶所付的钱。D 项表 达了这两层意思，A、C 两项文章未提到。B 项不合题意。因此 D 项为 正确答案。
The returned plastic bottles in New York used to ________.
第一段指出，much of it would be buried in landfills， 也就是说，许多塑料瓶被埋在垃圾填埋场，故 A 项正确。B 项说“变 成原材料”，第一段提到许多公司打算接受铝罐和玻璃瓶作为新产品 的原材料，但不包括塑料，故 B 项不对。第一段最后一句指出二手塑 料用途少，因此 C 项也不对。D 项文章未提到。因此 A 项为正确答案。
The key problem in dealing with returned plastic beverage containers is ________.
第三段第二句指出，废品将仍是废品，直到有人能够 确定如何给它第二次生命，直到在第二次生命价值中考虑到经济安 排。可见处理回收的塑料饮料瓶的关键在于找到它们重新利用的价值 及方法。因此 B 项为正确答案。
Recycling has become the first choice for the disposal of rubbish because ________.
第四段第一句指出，填埋场地越来越少，填埋和烧毁 垃圾的费用也在增加，因此政府看重回收。可见在处理垃圾时，政府 首先想到回收是因为其他方式耗资太大。而且 the East Coast 这一 例子也直接点明了回收利用是最便宜的垃圾处理方案。因此 D 项为正 确答案。
It can be concluded from the passage that ________.
在最后一段中，作者从两方面论述了回收垃圾的好处，一是节约费用，二是有利于控制污染，保护环境。C 项准确地表达了 这两层含义。A、B 两项文章未提到。D 项说法错误，因为政府在处理 垃圾时首先想到的是回收利用，可见是回收而不是垃圾坟埋场将得到 广泛应用。