發布於 2024-03-06

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Hi everyone, welcome to a new episode of News Bites!

I'm Kelly Kimura…

And I'm Nancy Sun.

Coming up next in today's news:
New Taipei has a new way to process food waste, and old stuffed animals are
getting a new life!

And in today's Tasty Tidbit…you are more than human!

Stay tuned for more on those stories!
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新北高效堆肥廠試運轉
New Taipei Launches High-Efficiency Composting Plant

What happens to the food we don't eat?

It becomes food waste.

Just one city, New Taipei City, collects over two hundred sixty thousand
kilograms of food waste every day!

Now, this city has a new high-efficiency composting plant (高效堆肥廠)!

It's in trial operation (試營運).

From April, this composting plant will turn fifty thousand kilograms of food
waste into compost every day!

Food waste can be processed (處理) more quickly.

This cuts down on bad odors from rotting food.

This plant is part of New Taipei's plans to diversify (多樣化) the ways it
processes food waste.

The ways include traditional (傳統的) composting, bioenergy (生物能源)
production, and innovative methods like black soldier fly breeding
(繁殖黑水虻).

The city is working with a major paper mill (造紙廠) to produce bioenergy.

This produces 90% less carbon (碳) than traditional composting!

It processes waste efficiently, and also aligns with net-zero emissions goals
(符合淨零排放的目標).

This helps the city make progress in environmental sustainability
(環境永續性).

At New Taipei's black soldier fly breeding plant, larvae (幼蟲) process
twelve thousand kilograms of waste daily.

The larvae are scavengers (腐食性動物).

They eat anything!

This black soldier fly breeding plant also turns fly larvae into high-quality
protein (蛋白質).

The larvae are given to poultry (家禽) and fish to eat.

This adds to circular economy (循環經濟) efforts.

The leftover fiber (廚餘的纖維) from food waste and the black soldier flies'
poop can be used to improve soil (改良土壤).

Cities work hard to process food waste.

Food waste is a big problem for Taiwan.

Let's all try not to waste food!
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絨毛動物玩具的新生活
A New Life for Stuffed Animals

A woman in England helps the Earth by rescuing (營救) old stuffed animals
(填充玩具).

She saves them from becoming dog toys or going into a landfill (垃圾掩埋場).

Many stuffed animals are made with manmade materials (人工材料).

In a landfill, they would take hundreds of years to break down.

The oil, natural gas, and water used to make them would be wasted.

So she made a company.

It's an environmentally friendly adoption agency (收養機構) for stuffed
animals!

People give her their old stuffed animals instead of throwing them away.

But they do something special first.

They write a message about the stuffed animal's personality (性格) or life.

Personality??

Yes. Knowing about the stuffed toy's personality helps a new person know if
they want to take it home.

When the old stuffed animal arrives at the company, the woman gives it a spa
treatment (水療護理).

What?? A spa treatment?

Yes! She washes it with lots of soap.

She sterilizes (消毒) it with steam (蒸氣).

She dries it carefully.

She fluffs up the fur (讓絨毛蓬鬆起來).

She puts in new stuffing
也會裝新的填充物進去。

She sews up holes.

She carefully cleans its eyes.

When the spa treatment is done, the stuffed animal is very clean!

It doesn't always look new, but it's good enough to go to a new home.

The woman says the life and love the stuffed animals had makes them more
valuable
(更加珍貴).

She sells these secondhand (二手的) stuffed animals at a big department store!

She puts them in environmentally friendly gift boxes.

She puts the messages about them on the boxes.

The woman also sells some of the stuffed animals on her company's website.

People buy them fast!

The new owners can send her photos and news about their stuffed animal.

She puts these on her website so the old owners can see their stuffed
animal's new life!

She thinks that no new stuffed animals need to be made.

There are already so many!

The woman rescues many stuffed animals and gives half of her profits to
charity
(把賺來的錢一半捐給慈善機構).

Let's do good things too!
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So in today's News Bites:

New Taipei has a new high-efficiency compost plant.

It will turn 50 thousand kilograms of food waste into compost every day.
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And...

A British woman is helping the Earth by saving stuffed animals.

She asks the old owners to write a message about them.

She cleans and sterilizes the stuffed animals and sells them at a department
store.

The woman says the life and love they had make them more valuable.
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趣味小點
Tasty Tidbit

And in today's Tasty Tidbit...

Did you know there are more bacterial cells (細菌細胞) than human cells in
your body?

By number of cells, the average person is about 56% bacteria!

Does that sound like a lot?

Before a 2016 study, scientists thought we were 90% bacteria!

Bacteria are very, very light.

So by weight, we are more than 99.7 percent human.

The bacteria of the average adult weighs about 200 grams in total.

Human males have 40 trillion bacterial cells.

Most of them are where food travels through the body.

Scientists say these bacteria are necessary for health.
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And that's it for today's episode of News Bites!

If you have a fun fact, a joke, or interesting news you'd like to share with
us, record your message and send your Tasty Tidbit to newsbites@icrt.com.tw.

You might hear it at the end of an episode!

We'll see you next time for an exciting new episode of News Bites!