British designer Anna Bullus is on a mission to recycle chewing gum into useful objects, cleaning up our streets in the process.
英国设计师安娜.布勒斯面临一个任务，就是要将嚼过的口香糖回收利用做成有用的东西，同时在这个过程中清理我们的街道。
More than £14bn is spent on chewing gum around the world each year, but a lot of that gum will end up stuck to the ground.
每年有多达140亿英镑花在了全世界的口香糖上，但它们当中很多最后都会粘在地上。
Gum is the second most common type of street litter after cigarette materials.
除了香烟的材料之外，口香糖是街头垃圾中第二常见的类型。
In the UK, councils spend around £50m each year cleaning up the mess.
在英国，国会每年会花大概五千万英镑用于清理这些脏物。
But Anna had an idea.
然而，安娜想出一个主意。
What if the sticky stuff could actually be recycled and turned into useful objects?
如果这些黏黏的东西其实可以回收利用，做成有用的东西呢？
Around 10 years ago, she began a project looking at kerbside litter.
大约十年前，她开始了一项关于马路边的垃圾的研究项目。
She examined random samples, looking at things like crisp packets and cigarette butts.
她研究了一些随机样本，查看了一些比如薯片包装袋和烟蒂之类的东西。
She then tried to figure out which elements could be recycled.
然后她试图搞清楚哪些元素可以被回收。
"One of the litters I found was a piece of chewing gum and as a designer I was completely amazed there was nothing actually being done to recycle it," she said.
“我发现的垃圾中有一个就是一块口香糖，作为一名设计师我感到很震惊居然它没有被回收利用，”她说。
Researching the chemistry of chewing gum, she discovered that its main ingredient, the gum base, is commonly a synthetic rubber, a type of polymer similar to plastic.
"It's called polyisobutylene," explains Anna, "the same stuff you find in the inner tube of bicycle wheels."
“它叫做聚异丁烯，”安娜解释道，“跟我们在自行车轮子的内胆的组成物质是一样的。”
It is obtained from petrochemicals, which are refined from fossil fuels like crude oil.
它是从石油化工中得到的，是从像原油这样的化式燃料中提炼出来的。
She realised that chewing gum, even once it has been finished with, is a versatile and potentially useful material.
她认识到口香糖，就算嚼过了，也是一种万能的很有潜力的有用材料。
But how do you persuade people to donate their gum - instead of carelessly tossing it on to the street?
但如何让人们捐献出他们的口香糖—而不是随手乱丢在街上呢？
As part of her strategy, Anna created bright pink, bubble-shaped bins specially for disposing of gum called Gumdrop, which can be hung at head-height.
作为计划的一部分，安娜设计出了一种亮粉色，气球形状的垃圾桶专门用来回收嚼过的口香糖块，这种垃圾桶可以挂在大约齐平头部的高度。
These bins are themselves made of recycled chewing gum.
这些垃圾桶它们本身也是用嚼过的口香糖回收制作的。
A message next to the bins explains that any gum collected will be recycled into new objects.
旁边还有一则告示说明收集起来的口香糖会被回收利用制成新的物品。
But would gum-chewers use them?
不过，那些嚼口香糖的人真的会用这种垃圾桶吗？
The University of Winchester was one of the first places to sign up to use the bins.
英国的温彻斯特大学是第一批登记使用这种垃圾箱的地方。
Around 8,000 people live and work on its campus and the authorities wanted to keep it clean of gum litter.
校园里大概有8000多人生活和工作，校方希望保持校园清洁。
It adopted a twin-pronged strategy to tackle the problem.
它采用了一个并行的措施来攻克难题。
It installed 11 of Anna's special bins and to reinforce the message that gum can be recycled if disposed of responsibly, it gave out hundreds of coffee cups made of recycled gum to first-year students.
它安装了11个安娜的特殊垃圾桶，为了强化口香糖合理丢弃就可以回收的信息，还免费给新生派发了几百个用回收的口香糖制成的咖啡杯。
"Students would give the cup a sniff to check it didn't smell of mint or bubble gum," recalls Liz Harris, the university's environmental officer.
“学生们往往会闻闻杯子看有没有薄荷或者口香糖的味道”，利兹.海瑞斯回忆道，她是大学的环保办公室老师。
"It's because so much of the chewing gum sold on the high street is a polymer [so it] can be used to make new products.
“因为大街上卖的口香糖都是多聚物，所以它可以被回收来做成新产品。”
'When people get it, it's a really nice moment."
“当人们听懂的时候，真的感觉很欣慰。”
Eighteen months later, the university noticed a drop in gum litter and is expanding the scheme.
十八个月过后，这所大学注意到口香糖垃圾减少了，于是便进一步推广这个项目。
The mixture containing the old chewing gum is put into an injection moulding machine.
含有废旧口香糖的混合物被放入喷射塑模机器里面。
It is heated and then ejected as a paste, which can be moulded into new objects as it cools.
它被加热然后像胶一样喷出，然后冷却后被塑造成新的物品。
"When you are h
andling the finished product, you do take a while to adjust to the fact that this has been in somebody's mouth previously.
“当你拿到成品后，你会需要一段时间来调整适应一下，因为这个东西曾经出现在某人的嘴里。”
'But once you get over that fear it's easy. By recycling it and giving it another lease of life it's helping the environment, it's an absolutely fantastic idea."
“但克服了恐惧之后就很简单了。通过回收利用，让它变成日常用品可以改善环境，这真是一个很不错的主意！”
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