Topic: 5.3 billion cellphones to become waste in 2022
More than 5 billion of the estimated 16 billion mobile phones possessed worldwide will likely be discarded or stashed away in 2022, experts said Thursday last week, calling for more recycling of the often hazardous materials they contain.
專家上週四表示，二〇二二年全球人口所擁有的計160億支手機中，有超過50億支可能會被丟棄或束之高閣，呼籲加強回收這些手機所含的危險物質。
Stacked flat on top of each other, that many disused phones would rise 50,000 kilometers, more than 100 times higher than the International Space Station, the waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) research consortium found.
廢電子及電器設備處理指令（WEEE）研究聯盟發現，將這麼多的廢棄手機堆疊起來，會有五萬公里高，比國際太空站離地面的距離還高一百多倍。
Despite containing valuable gold, copper, silver, palladium and other recyclable components, almost all these unwanted devices will be hoarded, dumped or incinerated, causing significant health and environmental harm.
儘管這些不要的設備含有有價值的金、銅、銀、鈀及其他可回收成分，但幾乎全都會被囤積、丟棄或焚化，而對健康和環境造成重大危害。
“Smartphones are one of the electronic products of highest concern for us,” said Pascal Leroy, director-general of the WEEE Forum, a not-for-profit association representing 46 producer responsibility organizations.
「智慧手機是最令我們擔心的電子產品之一」，代表四十六個生產者責任組織的非營利協會 WEEE 論壇總幹事巴斯卡‧李若伊說。
“If we don’t recycle the rare materials they contain, we’ll have to mine them in countries like China or Congo,” Leroy told AFP.
「如果不回收這些手機裡的稀有材料，我們將不得不到中國或剛果等國家去開採」，李若伊對法新社表示。
Defunct cellphones are just the tip of the 44.48 million tonne iceberg of global electronic waste generated annually that is not recycled, according to the 2020 global e-waste monitor.
根據全球電子廢棄物監測機構二〇二〇年的數據，報廢的手機只是全球每年產生的4,448萬噸未回收電子廢棄物的冰山一角。
Many of the 5 billion phones withdrawn from circulation will be hoarded rather than dumped in the trash, according to a survey in six European countries from June to September 2022.
根據二〇二二年六月至九月在六個歐洲國家進行的一項調查，這五十億支不再使用的手機，其中有很多會被囤積起來，而不是丟進垃圾桶。
This happens when households and businesses forget cellphones in drawers, closets, cupboards or garages rather than bringing them in for repair or recycling.
家庭和企業將手機遺忘在抽屜、衣櫥、櫥櫃或車庫，而不是將它們拿去修理或回收，就是這種囤積的情況。
Up to five kilos of e-devices per person are currently hoarded in the average European family, the report found.
該報告發現，目前歐洲一般家庭中每人囤積的電子設備高達五公斤重。
According to the new findings, 46 percent of the 8,775 households surveyed considered potential future use as the main reason for hoarding small electrical and electronic equipment.
根據這項新發現，在接受調查的8,775戶家庭中，46%的家庭之所以囤積小型電器及電子設備，主要是因為覺得未來可能會用到它。
Another 15 percent stockpile their gadgets with the intention of selling them or giving them away, while 13 percent keep them due to “sentimental value”.
另有15%的人囤積他們的小裝置是為了要出售或是送人，而13%的人是因為「情感價值」而保留它。
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Topic: The ‘Right to Repair’ Movement Gains Ground
If you buy a product — a car, a smartphone, or even a tractor — and it breaks, should it be easier for you to fix it yourself?
如果你買了一個產品，例如一輛汽車、一部智慧型手機，甚至是一台拖拉機，結果它壞了，是不是應該讓你自己修理起來更容易些呢？
Manufacturers of a wide range of products have made it increasingly difficult over the years to repair things, for instance by limiting availability of parts or by putting prohibitions on who gets to tinker with them. It affects not only game consoles or farm equipment, but cellphones, military gear, refrigerators, automobiles and even hospital ventilators, the lifesaving devices that have proved crucial this year in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.
多年來，許多種產品的製造商都讓維修變得愈來愈困難，比如限制零件的取得，或對何人有權動手維修施加限制。受影響的產品不止於遊戲主機或農用機具，還有手機、軍用設備、冰箱、汽車，甚至包括今年對抗新冠病毒疫情發揮關鍵作用的救生設備—醫院裡的呼吸器。
Now, a movement known as “right to repair” is starting to make progress in pushing for laws that prohibit restrictions like these.
現在，一項名為「維修權」的運動在推動禁止此類限制的立法上，正取得進展。
In August, Democrats introduced a bill in Congress to block manufacturers’ limits on medical devices, spurred by the pandemic. In Europe, the European Commission announced plans in March for new right-to-repair rules that would cover phones, tablets and laptops by 2021.
今年8月，美國民主黨因防疫需要而在國會提出一項法案，旨在阻止製造商對醫療裝置設下限制。在歐洲，歐盟執行委員會3月宣布了新的維修權規定計畫，在2021年以前實施，涵蓋手機、平板電腦和筆記型電腦。
And in more than 20 statehouses nationwide, right-to-repair legislation has been introduced in recent years by both Republicans and Democrats.
近年來，在全美國20多個州的議會裡，共和黨和民主黨都提出了維修權法案。
Over the summer, the House advanced a funding bill that includes a requirement that the Federal Trade Commission complete a report on anti-competitive practices in the repair market and present its findings to Congress and the public.
今年夏天，眾議院推動了一項資助法案，其中責成聯邦貿易委員會做成一份關於維修市場反競爭行為的報告，並向國會和民眾提交調查結果。
The goal of right-to-repair rules, advocates say, is to require companies to make their parts, tools and information available to consumers and repair shops in order to keep devices from ending up in the scrap heap. They argue that the rules restrict people’s use of devices that they own and encourage a throwaway culture by making repairs too difficult.
倡議人士表示，維修權規定的目的是要求企業向消費者和維修商家提供零組件、工具及資訊，以免這些裝置最終被扔進垃圾堆。他們主張，目前的慣例對人們使用自己的裝置設下限制，並透過讓維修變得太過困難的方式，助長了一種用完即丟的文化。
They also argue that it’s part of a culture of planned obsolescence — the idea that products are designed to be short-lived in order to encourage people to buy more stuff. That contributes to wasted natural resources and energy use at a time when climate change requires movement in the opposite direction to rein in planet-warming emissions.
他們還認為，這是一種計畫性淘汰文化的一部分，即為了鼓勵人們購買更多東西，產品被設計成短命的。在氣候變遷需要採取反向行動來控制溫室氣體排放的此際，這助長了自然資源的浪費以及能源的使用。
Manufacturing a new device or appliance is still largely reliant on polluting sources of energy — electricity generated from burning fossil fuels, for instance — and constitutes the largest environmental impact for most products.
製造一種新設備或裝置在很大程度上，仍仰賴會造成汙染的能源，例如燃燒化石燃料產生的電力，對大多數產品而言，這正是構成最大環境影響的因素。
Source article: https://udn.com/news/story/6904/5015841
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Topic: Help for Curing The Phone Addiction
Like pretty much everyone, Susan Butler stares at her smartphone too much. But unlike most everyone, she took action, buying a $195 ring from a company called Ringly, which promises to “let you put your phone away and your mind at ease.”
和大多數人一樣，蘇珊．巴特勒盯著智慧手機看的時間太長了。不一樣的是，她採取了行動，從Ringly公司買了一只195美元的戒指，保證可「讓你手機放一旁，腦袋放輕鬆」。
Ringly does this by connecting its rings to a smartphone filter so that users can silence Gmail or Facebook notifications while preserving crucial alerts, which cause the ring to light up or vibrate.
Ringly透過將戒指連接一個篩選程式辦到這一點，因此使用者可以讓Gmail或Facebook通知改為靜音，同時保留重要提示，這時戒指會發光或震動。
“Hopefully it will keep some distance between my phone and my hand,” said Ms. Butler, 27, a technology consultant who lives in Austin, Texas.
住在德州奧斯汀、27歲的科技顧問巴特勒說：「希望它能讓我的手機和我的手之間保持些距離。」
Given how quickly cellphones have taken over, it’s easy to forget that they are still a relatively new technology. The first iPhone came out eight years ago.
手機快速地主導了人們的生活，很容易讓我們忘了它仍是相當新的科技。第一支iPhone問世不過是8年前的事。
Yet already people spend close to three hours a day looking at a mobile screen – and that excludes the time they spend actually talking on the phones.
然而已有人每天花近3小時看手機－這還不算實際用手機講電話的時間。
In a recent survey of smartphone use by Bank of America, about a third of respondents said they were “constantly” checking their smartphones, and a little more than two-thirds said that they went to bed with a smartphone by their side. New companies see a business opportunity in helping people cut back.
美國銀行最近一項智慧手機使用調查發現，約三分之一受訪者表示「不斷」查看手機；略多於三分之二的人說，睡覺時把手機放在身旁。一些新公司在幫助人們少用手機這件事上看到了商機。
“Technology has evolved so quickly that we have spiraled out of control and nobody has stopped to think about how this is going to impact our lives,” said Kate Unsworth, the founder of a British company, Kovert, that also makes high-tech jewelry to filter out everything but the most urgent stuff.
英國Kovert公司製造的高科技首飾能濾除最緊急資訊以外的所有訊息，創辦人凱特．安茲沃斯說：「科技發展飛快，讓我們失去掌控，沒有人停下來思考這一切會如何影響我們的生活。」
Smartwatches like the Apple Watch are designed to encourage more glancing and less phone checking. In June, Google and Levi’s announced plans for a line of high-tech clothes that will allow people to do things like turn off a ringing phone by swiping their jacket cuff.
Apple Watch之類智慧手表設計宗旨在於讓人多簡單過目，少滑手機。谷歌和Levi’s六月宣布一項高科技服飾系列的合作計畫，讓人們能做拍打外套袖口就關掉手機響鈴之類的事。
Offtime limits customers’ access to apps they overuse and produce charts on how much time they spend on their phones. Moment encourages people to share their phone use with friends to compete in a game of who can look at their phone the least. And Light Phone, a credit-card-size phone that does nothing but make and receive phone calls.
Offtime程式限制顧客開啟過度使用的應用程式，並製作圖表顯示他們花在手機上的時間。Moment鼓勵人們和朋友分享自己使用手機的狀況並互相比賽，看看誰能最少看手機。還有信用卡大小的手機Light Phone，只能撥打及接聽電話。
NoPhone is a $12 piece of plastic that looks like a smartphone but actually does nothing. “Most people don’t think about phone addiction as a real thing until you’re like, ‘O.K., they’re buying a piece of plastic because they are worried about their friend,’ ” said Van Gould, head of the nascent venture that had sold close to 3,200 NoPhones.
NoPhone是塊12美元的塑膠，看來像支智慧手機，實際上啥也不能做。這家新興公司已售出近3200支NoPhone，老闆范恩．古德說：「多數人沒把手機成癮真當個問題，直到你覺得『是的，他們買了一件塑膠，因為他們擔心朋友。』」
Adam Gazzaley, a neurologist and neuroscience professor at the University of California, San Francisco, said, “You have a population that is starting to say, ‘Wait, we love all this technology but there seems to be a cost – whether it’s my relationship or my work or my safety because I’m driving and texting.’ ”
舊金山加州大學神經病學家暨神經科學教授亞當．加札利說：「有一群人開始說『等等，我們愛這些科技，但似乎要付代價－無論是我的感情、工作或安全，因為我邊開車邊打簡訊。」
Some products are trying to find a balance. Google Now uses data to bother you only when you need it. “If I’m about to forget my kid’s birthday I want the phone to scream at me until I do something about it,” said Sundar Pichai, Google’s senior vice president of products.
有些產品試著尋求平衡。Google Now只在你需要時用數據打擾你。Google產品資深副總裁桑達．皮柴說：「在我將要忘記孩子的生日時，我要手機對我尖叫，直到我讓它停止。」
Smartphones are a potent delivery mechanism for two fundamental human impulses, according to Paul Atchley, a psychology professor at the University of Kansas: our quest to find new and interesting distractions, and our desire to feel that we have checked off a task.
堪薩斯大學心理學教授保羅．艾區利表示，對於兩項基本的人類衝動而言，智慧手機是有力的傳遞機制：尋求新鮮有趣的娛樂，以及感覺自己檢查過一項工作的欲望。
“The brain gets literally rewired to switch – to constantly seek out novelty, which makes putting the phone down difficult,” he said.
他說：「大腦實際上會重新連接以轉變，持續尋求新奇事物，這使得放下手機很困難。」
Addiction or not, Ms. Butler still sought help from Ringly.
無論成癮與否，巴特勒仍持續自Ringly尋求幫助。
Mr. Atchley is skeptical. Successful treatment, he said, is about controlling our demons – not outsourcing them.
艾區利表示懷疑。他說，成功的治療在於控制自己的心魔－而非將此事外包。
In technology, as in life, a little willpower goes a long way.
面對科技，一如面對生活，一點點意志力就很有用。
Source article: https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0067/282793/web/#2L-6186766L