I was about 10 years old on a camping trip with my dad in the Adirondack Mountains, a wilderness area in the northern part of New York State.
我10岁左右的时候，有一次和爸爸一起去阿第伦达克山脉露营。那是一片位于纽约州北部的野生地带。
It was a beautiful day. The forest was sparkling.
那天天气特别好。森林里处处闪闪发光。
The sun made the leaves glow like stained glass, and if it weren't for the path we were following,
阳光照耀下，树叶闪闪地象晶莹的彩色玻璃。如果没有脚下的小路，
we could almost pretend we were the first human beings to ever walk that land.
我们完全可以假装我们是首批到达这片树林的人类。
We got to our campsite. It was a lean-to on a bluff looking over a crystal, beautiful lake, when I discovered a horror.
我们最终到达了我们的营地。那是一个在悬崖上的营地，可以向下俯瞰一个水晶般晶莹美丽的湖泊，后来我却发现了很糟糕的事。
Behind the lean-to was a dump, maybe 40 feet square with rotting apple cores and balled-up aluminum foil, and a dead sneaker.
就在悬崖营地的后面，有个足足有40英尺见方的大垃圾堆。里面有烂苹果核、用过的铝箔纸和破旧的运动鞋。
And I was astonished, I was very angry, and I was deeply confused.
我当时非常吃惊，非常生气，也非常非常困惑。
The campers who were too lazy to take out what they had brought in, who did they think would clean up after them?
来露营的人实在太懒了，连自己带来的垃圾都不肯收拾。他们觉得谁会替他们清理善后呢？
That question stayed with me, and it simplified a little. Who cleans up after us?
这个问题一直困扰着我。成了一个更精练的问题。谁来清理我们留下的垃圾？
However you configure or wherever you place the us, who cleans up after us in Istanbul?
但是你可以把这个问题放在任何你生活的地方，谁在伊斯坦布清理我们留下的垃圾？
Who cleans up after us in Rio or in Paris or in London?
谁在里约清理我们留下的垃圾？在巴黎或伦敦呢？
Here in New York, the Department of Sanitation cleans up after us,
在纽约，这里，是环卫部门清理我们留下的
to the tune of 11,000 tons of garbage and 2,000 tons of recyclables every day.
多达11000吨的垃圾和每天2000吨的可回收垃圾。
I wanted to get to know them as individuals. I wanted to understand who takes the job.
我个人想去了解这些环卫工人，我想知道谁在做这样的工作。
What's it like to wear the uniform and bear that burden?
穿上环卫服，承担起这份责任的感觉是什么样？
So I started a research project with them.
所以我开始了一项关于环卫工人的研究课题。
I rode in the trucks and walked the routes and interviewed people in offices and facilities all over the city,
我坐在垃圾车上，沿着收垃圾的路线，采访全纽约在办公室和工作现场的环卫人员。
and I learned a lot, but I was still an outsider. I needed to go deeper.
我学到了很多，但我仍然是个局外人。我需要更深入地了解。
So I took the job as a sanitation worker. I didn't just ride in the trucks now. I drove the trucks.
于是我真的找了份环卫工人的工作。现在我不仅仅是坐在垃圾车里，我开着垃圾车。
And I operated the mechanical brooms and I plowed the snow. It was a remarkable privilege and an amazing education.
我自己操纵着电动扫帚扫大街、在路上铲雪。那可是一种非凡的特权，也是令人叹服的受教育过程。
Everyone asks about the smell. It's there, but it's not as prevalent as you think,
每个人都会问到垃圾臭味。是有臭味，但它不是你想的那样糟糕，
and on days when it is really bad, you get used to it rather quickly.
有的时候气味确实很臭，但你很快就会适应了。
The weight takes a long time to get used to.
垃圾的重量却需要很长时间来适应。
I knew people who were several years on the job whose bodies were still adjusting to the burden of bearing on your body tons of trash every week.
我就知道即使有几年工作经验的熟练工，他们的身体还试着在适应每周成吨的垃圾。
Then there's the danger. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,
那么这里面就存在着风险。根据劳动统计局的报告，
sanitation work is one of the 10 most dangerous occupations in the country, and I learned why.
环卫工作是美国十大最危险工种之一。我后来慢慢明白了为什么。
You're in and out of traffic all day, and it's zooming around you.
你整天都在路上，就身处车流之中。
It just wants to get past you, so it's often the motorist is not paying attention. That's really bad for the worker.
来往的车辆只想着超过你，开车的人往往不够小心。对环卫工人来说，这实在太糟糕了。
And then the garbage itself is full of hazards that often fly back out of the truck and do terrible harm.
还有呢，垃圾本身就充满了毒害，这些毒物经常会从垃圾车里飘出，造成可怕的伤害。
I also learned about the relentlessness of trash.
我还了解到垃圾的残酷和可怕。
When you step off the curb and you see a city from behind a truck, you come to understand that trash is like a force of nature unto itself.
当你走下路沿，在环卫车旁观察一个城市，你会慢慢认识到垃圾真的就像大自然本身的力量。
It never stops coming. It's also like a form of respiration or circulation. It must always be in motion.
它从来都是源源而来的。它也像呼吸或循环的一种形式。它总是在动态中。
And then there's the stigma. You put on the uniform,
最后一点，环卫工人被污名化。当你穿上环卫制服，
and you become invisible until someone is upset with you for whatever reason like you've blocked traffic with your truck,
你被视而不见了，直到有人找到什么理由难为你，嫌你的环卫车阻碍交通呀，
or you're taking a break too close to their home, or you're drinking coffee in their diner,
嫌你在离他们家很近的地方休息呀，嫌你在他们的小餐馆喝咖啡呀，
and they will come and scorn you, and tell you that they don't want you anywhere near them.
他们会走过来嘲笑你，告诉你离他们远点。

I find the stigma especially ironic,
我觉得这样的污名化非常地可笑，
because I strongly believe that sanitation workers are the most important labor force on the streets of the city, for three reasons.
因为我坚信环卫工人们是城市街道上的最重要的劳动力，原因有三点。
They are the first guardians of public health.
他们是公共卫生的第一道屏障。
If they're not taking away trash efficiently and effectively every day,
如果他们每天不高效迅速地清理垃圾的话，
it starts to spill out of its containments, and the dangers inherent to it threaten us in very real ways.
垃圾会从容器中泄露，它本身的毒害会以一种非常真实的方式威胁到我们的生活。
Diseases we've had in check for decades and centuries burst forth again and start to harm us.
我们经过数个世纪和数十年攻克的疾病会再次爆发，开始威胁我们的健康。
The economy needs them. If we can't throw out the old stuff, we have no room for the new stuff,
（第二个原因）国民经济需要环卫工人。如果我们不丢掉旧的东西，我们就没有空间装新的东西，
so then the engines of the economy start to sputter when consumption is compromised.
那样的话，经济的引擎就会停歇，因为人们的消费减少了。
I'm not advocating capitalism, I'm just pointing out their relationship.
我不主张资本主义，我在这里只是指出它们的关系。卫工作的时候， 我再次遇见了那个人。 他的名字叫保利，我们多次一起工作过， 还成为了好朋友。
And then there's what I call our average, necessary quotidian velocity.
（第三个原因）就是我称之为我们平均、必要、经常性的活动速度。
By that I simply mean how fast we're used to moving in the contemporary day and age.
我的意思是说，在如今的年代和日子里，我们是如此地习惯于奔忙。
We usually don't care for, repair, clean, carry around our coffee cup, our shopping bag, our bottle of water.
我们通常不会在意、修理、清洁、随身携带我们的咖啡杯，购物袋和水瓶。
We use them, we throw them out, we forget about them, because we know there's a workforce on the other side that's going to take it all away.
我们使用它们，然后扔掉它们，然后忘掉它们，因为我们知道会有一支工作队伍在一旁把这些东西清理掉。
So I want to suggest today a couple of ways to think about sanitation
所以今天我想建议大家去想想环卫工人的处境，
that will perhaps help ameliorate the stigma and bring them into this conversation of how to craft a city that is sustainable and humane.
也许能够帮助他们正名，把他们请来参与谈论如何建设一个可持续的人道的城市。
Their work, I think, is kind of liturgical. They're on the streets every day, rhythmically.
我认为他们的工作是很崇高的，他们每天按时地辛勤地在街上工作。
They wear a uniform in many cities. You know when to expect them. And their work lets us do our work.
在很多城市他们穿着环卫服不停工作。你知道他们会准时来清理垃圾，是他们使我们可以安心于自己的工作。
They are almost a form of reassurance. The flow that they maintain keeps us safe from ourselves,
他们几乎成了安心工作的保证。他们所保持的工作流量让我们自身安全无忧，
from our own dross, our cast-offs, and that flow must be maintained always no matter what.
而不必担心我们剩下的糟粕和垃圾，这样的工作流量不管怎样都需要保持稳定性。
On the day after September 11 in 2001, I heard the growl of a sanitation truck on the street,
2001年9月11日的第二天，我听着街上环卫卡车咆哮而来，
and I grabbed my infant son and I ran downstairs and there was a man doing his paper recycling route like he did every Wednesday.
我拉着年幼的儿子跑下楼，有个回收报纸的工人正在做他每周三都做的工作。
And I tried to thank him for doing his work on that day of all days, but I started to cry.
我要感谢他做的这些工作，在那么特殊的日子里，但我忍不住哭了起来。
And he looked at me, and he just nodded, and he said, "We're going to be okay. We're going to be okay."
他望着我，只是点点头，然后说，“我们会没事的。我们会没事的。”
It was a little while later that I started my research with sanitation, and I met that man again.
后来在我刚刚开始研究环卫工作的时候，我再次遇见了那个人。
His name is Paulie, and we worked together many times, and we became good friends.
他的名字叫保利，我们多次一起工作过，还成为了好朋友。
I want to believe that Paulie was right. We are going to be okay.
我愿意相信保利的话是对的。我们会没事的。
But in our effort to reconfigure how we as a species exist on this planet,
但我们作为这个星球的一份子，我们需要努力地进行重建，
we must include and take account of all the costs, including the very real human cost of the labor.
我们必须考虑到所有的消耗，包括非常现实的劳动力消耗。
And we also would be well informed to reach out to the people who do that work and get their expertise on how do we think about,
而且我们需要更好地了解情况，和各行业的专家交流我们自己的看法，
how do we create systems around sustainability that perhaps take us from curbside recycling,
关于如何建立一个可持续发展体系的看法。
which is a remarkable success across 40 years, across the United States and countries around the world,
这或许把我们从街道垃圾回收，这个成功地走过了40年历史，跨越了美国在内的无数国家的工作，
and lift us up to a broader horizon where we're looking at other forms of waste that could be lessened from manufacturing and industrial sources.
引领到一个更大的范畴里，我们可以考虑如何减少来自制造业和其他工业来源的垃圾。
Municipal waste, what we think of when we talk about garbage, accounts for three percent of the nation's waste stream.
城市垃圾，我们通常认识中的垃圾，其实只占国内垃圾总量的3%。
It's a remarkable statistic.
这是个惊人的数据。
So in the flow of your days, in the flow of your lives, next time you see someone whose job is to clean up after you,
所以在你的生活的每一天，在你生命之河里，下一次当你看到有人在清理你留下的垃圾时，
take a moment to acknowledge them. Take a moment to say thank you.
请找个时间向他们致意，找个时间说声谢谢。