E-waste is fast becoming a serious problem around the world. This report will examine this problem and provide some possible ways to solve it.

We live in a society that is producing and using electronics(电子产品) all the time. It is often cheaper to buy new products than to repair old ones. Also, through clever advertising, companies always encourage people to change their old TVs, mobile phones and computers for the latest models. E-waste is created when we throw away old ones. In the EU alone, about 8,700,000 tons of e-waste is produced each year. Sadly, just over 1,000,000 tons is recycled.

    Burying(填埋) e-waste or burning it cause serious problems for the environment. Electronics have dangerous things in them. These things can then get into the ground or pollute the air when they are burnt.

    In recent years,   ▲  . However, their plans are not always managed properly. Sometimes electronics are just sent to poor countries such as Ghana. Here they are often burnt in public areas, which is very bad for people's health. Setting up recycling centers is a good way to solve this problem. E-cycling centers could recycle the parts that can be reused and deal with the rest properly.

    Another way is to make producers responsible(负责任) for their used products. This means that producers must take back old products which are no longer wanted. They should then make sure they are properly recycled or reused.

    As for us, we should try to cut down on e-waste. Change electronics only when we have to. And don't buy a product just to have the latest model.

    E-waste is a serious problem in the modern world. Both producers and users must take actions and try to keep it to the smallest amount.

    Do you think you're green? You're a totally modern citizen, aren't you? You keep your bottles and take them to the bottle bank. You have a black bin and a green bin, one for general waste and one for recyclable waste. Your car uses lead—free petrol. You use the same plastic bag every time you go to the supermarket. Maybe you even cycle to work from time to time. You are playing your part; you are green and environment—friendly. Well, I've got news for you:

    YOU ARE NOT DOING ENOUGH!

    If you don't believe me, look at these facts. Trust me, they're from a BBC website.

    On average every person in the UK throws away their own body weight in rubbish every seven weeks.

    Every year, the average dustbin contains enough unused energy for 500 hot baths, 3,500 hot showers or 5,000 hours of television.

    Every UK household produces over one tonne of rubbish every year.

    If all the aluminium drink cans sold in the UK were recycled, there would be 14 million fewer full dustbins per year.

    Just one recycled aluminium can saves enough energy to run a television for three hours!

    At Christmas over 83 square kilometres of wrapping paper is thrown in the bin.

    Almost three billion nappies (used for baby) are thrown away in the UK every year. 90% of these are buried and take hundreds of years to disappear.

    Have I made you believe that you need to do more? No? OK, here are one or two more facts.

    Recycling just one plastic bottle saves enough energy to power a light bulb for six hours.

    Collecting dustbins and cleaning streets costs ￡1. 6 billion per year.

    Surely you must believe me now. You need to do more. The good news is that there is some— thing else you can do.

    People have always wanted to know what our future will look like. Go on reading this text, and you will know what will happen in the next fifty years.

    How can we know what the future will look like? To be able to understand the future, you have to know the past, what has taken us to where we are today and what has changed along the way? The world has changed a lot in the last 150 years, but people are driven by the same basic needs as they were 150 years ago. Will this change in the next 150 years? No.

    What inventions have really made a different in the last 150 years? In the past years, the inventions that have changed most people's everyday life are telephone, radio, television, computer, the car and the internet. Then we of course have a lot of inventions that have made life easier, like new medicine, faster cars, trains, etc. In general, people have been working hard in the last 150 years to make inventions that will make the world a better place. Since there is still much to do in the area, this will be important for at least the next 150 years.

    Why do we need to guess the future? Guessing the future is important for two reasons: First, we need to start to think about what kind of future we would like for ourselves and our children. And then we need to know what decisions we need to make today that will give us the best future.

    In most parts of the world, many students help their schools make less pollution. They join environment clubs. In an environment club, people work together to make our environment clean.

    Here are some things students often do.

    No-rubbish lunches. How many lunch bags do you throw away after lunch? Environment clubs ask students to bring their lunches in bags that can be used again. Every week they will choose which classes make the least rubbish and report them to the whole school.

    No-car day. On a no-car day, nobody comes to school in a car including the students and the teachers. Cars give pollution to us, so remember:

    Walk, jump, bike, or run!

    Use your legs! It's lots of fun!

    Turn off the water! Do you know that some toilets can waste twenty to forty cubic (立方) meters of water an hour? In a year, that would fill in a small river. In the environment clubs, students repair those broken toilets.

    We love our environment. Let's work together to make it better.

    On July 1, 2019, Shanghai began the waste sorting programme. There are four kinds of waste: wet waste, dry waste, dangerous waste and recyclable waste. Under the new rules, people must put their waste in the right place. Or they will be fined more than 50 yuan and less than 200 yuan.

    Sorting waste is very important. By doing so, we can take out non-degradable(不可降解的)waste and save resources(资源)In return, we can get a better environment.  ▲   Luckily. Internet companies like Wechat, Baidu and Alipay made apps to help.

    How do we use the apps? Just open one waste-sorting app and write down the keyword. Then the app will tell us the answer and why, Alipay says its waste-sorting app got one million users in just three days and the number is still growing. They are working on the app and people may use it by taking photos in the future.

    The waste-sorting programme is the talk of the whole country now. And another 21. 3 billion yuan will be used on the programme in 46 cities by the end of 2020.

    What might the future be like? Here are some predictions(预测): things to come, things to go.

    The Spring Festival has caused headaches for millions of Chinese. More than 2 billion people travel at the same time and the journey is difficult. But in 28 years, Spring Festival travel may not be a problem at all. China plans to build more than 120,000 kilometers of railway and a fast transportation network that will serve 90% of the population by 2020. And because most of China will be cities, people will not have to go to other places to find a job, so it will no longer be a problem.

    Newspaper will come to an end in 2043. In the future, digital(数字的) newspapers will be sent to personal web tools through Internet. Readers can discuss topics with journalists and editors. Information will move faster.

    Oil is running out faster than expected. But scientists have found something else for oil as fuel(燃料). Coal, natural gas, nuclear power(核能) and even water can take the place of oil as sources of energy(能源).

    Schools will go electronic(电子化). Computers will be important and popular among the students. Everything will be in the computer and students will not need to bring books to school. They will find information on the Internet. A computer will be the students' library, schoolbag and connection to the outside world. There will be robot teachers, they will check homework on computers and communicate with the students' parents through e-mail. And school buses will be comfortable and safe.