Episode Details

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! ___________________________________________________________ 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! ___________________________________________________________ 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