第21期:认识细菌(21)

Pollutants don't just get into the oceans by land and by water. They also go by air.

An incinerator burns the leftover sludge at a sewage plant. The sludge contains pollutants that the plant can't treat.

So they get burned along with everything else. The pollutants don't disappear though they simply get turned into smoke.

And eventually end up in the sea. And when it rains the drains overflow and carry everything into the river.

But there are some things we can do. The best way to reduce the pollutants in our oceans is to keep them from entering the water system in the first place.

Unlike most other mills, this paper mill releases no chlorine at all. The sound result paper mill in Sweden saw a growing market for chlorine free paper.

The heart of its process contains bleaching bats that use hydrogen peroxide, a substance derived from water that degrades back to water. The Swedes are working with environmentalists to make their factory even cleaner.

Soon it will be a closed-loop system. No toxins will be released into the air or water.

It took money to change the plant, but saundra cells order book is full. And soon the process will cost less than chlorine bleaching.

This factory shows that if companies are willing to rethink the way they do things, they can help stop pollution. By supporting companies that try to reduce pollution and by thinking more about what we put into the waters every day,