It's garbage.

這是垃圾。

North America's biggest landfill operator, which manages your waste, is known as WM.

北美最大的垃圾填埋場運營商被稱為 WM，它負責管理您的垃圾。

It's best known for collecting trash and putting it in a landfill.

它以收集垃圾並將其送入垃圾填埋場而聞名。

If you've lived in America and you've thrown something away, chances are they have handled your trash.

如果你在美國生活過，扔過東西，他們很可能處理過你的垃圾。

But beginning in 2026, the company says sustainability-focused ventures will reach 15 percent of its total profit, or about $740 million a year.

但該公司表示，從 2026 年開始，以可持續發展為重點的投資項目將達到總利潤的 15%，即每年約 7.4 億美元。

Here's how the company plans to profit from government tax credits and a market that's hungry for renewable energy and recycled materials.

以下是該公司計劃如何從政府稅收減免以及對可再生能源和再生材料的市場需求中獲利。

This is the economics of WM.

這就是 WM 的經濟學。

Over the next four years, WM plans to invest $1.2 billion into making fuel from rotting garbage.

未來四年，WM 公司計劃投資 12 億美元，利用腐爛的垃圾製造燃料。

When the trash that ends up in a landfill decomposes, it releases a slew of gases.

當垃圾在垃圾填埋場分解時，會釋放出大量氣體。

One of them is methane, known commercially as natural gas, which is more environmentally harmful to the atmosphere than carbon dioxide.

其中一種是甲烷，商業上稱為天然氣，它對大氣的環境危害比二氧化碳更大。

Landfill owners would previously capture methane and burn it off to prevent it from seeping into the atmosphere.

以前，垃圾填埋場業主會捕捉甲烷並將其燃燒，以防止其滲入大氣。

Now, they collect the gases, and nearby plants separate the methane, which is piped into power plants for electricity or into homes for heating and cooking.

現在，他們收集這些氣體，附近的工廠分離出甲烷，通過管道輸送到發電廠發電，或輸送到家庭供暖和做飯。

WM already operates 66 landfill gas plants all over the country.

WM 公司已在全國營運著 66 家垃圾填埋氣工廠。

Landfill gas is much more expensive to produce than gas drilled by energy companies.

垃圾填埋氣的生產成本遠高於能源公司的鑽井氣。

But thanks to federal tax breaks and other incentives to reduce pollution, landfill gas has become economically viable for producers and buyers.

但是，由於聯邦稅收減免和其他減少汙染的激勵措施，垃圾填埋氣對於生產商和買家來說已經變得經濟可行。

WM expects to receive $250 million in tax credits installing gasworks at 18 of its landfills, thanks to last year's climate, tax and health care bill.

得益於去年的氣候、稅收和醫療保健法案，WM 預計將獲得 2.5 億美元的稅收減免，用於在其 18 個垃圾填埋場安裝燃氣設備。

The climate bill really was a bit more of a catalyst to do it faster.

氣候法案確實是加快這一進程的催化劑。

Waste management is pursuing these projects because they're immensely profitable right now.

廢物管理公司之所以要開展這些項目，是因為它們現在利潤豐厚。

And it's made projects at smaller landfills, which will be less productive than large landfills, it's brought them into the money.

此外，這還使小型垃圾填埋場的項目（這些項目的生產率將低於大型垃圾填埋場）獲得了資金支持。

They're now economical.

它們現在很經濟。

WM says this expansion will allow it to produce eight times more gas than it does now and will generate $500 million in additional profit for 2026, not counting the tax breaks.

WM 公司表示，此次擴建將使其天然氣產量比現在多出八倍，並將在 2026 年帶來 5 億美元的額外利潤，這還不包括稅收減免。

Currently, natural gas from landfills only accounts for less than 1 percent of the U.S. natural gas supply.

目前，垃圾填埋場產生的天然氣僅佔美國天然氣供應量的不到 1%。

But because of the growing demand, the number of renewable natural gas projects, including landfills, has nearly doubled in the past five years and production has significantly increased.

但由於需求不斷增長，包括垃圾填埋場在內的可再生天然氣項目數量在過去五年中幾乎翻了一番，產量也大幅增加。

WM's competitors are also cashing in with their own landfill gas plants.

WM 公司的競爭對手也在利用自己的垃圾填埋氣工廠賺錢。

Republic Services is planning to open a total of 77 renewable energy projects and reported that about 88 percent of its landfills are covered in biogas collection systems.

共和服務公司（Republic Services）計劃開設總共 77 個可再生能源項目，並報告稱其垃圾填埋場約有 88% 覆蓋了沼氣收集系統。

But WM's not just investing in landfills.

但 WM 不僅僅是投資垃圾填埋場。

The waste management company is making large investments in upgrading its recycling plants, like this one outside of Cleveland.

這家廢物管理公司正在投入巨資，對其回收工廠進行升級改造，比如克利夫蘭郊外的這家工廠。

Our 100,000 square foot facility is built to manage 12,000 tons a month of recycling.

我們的設施佔地 100,000 平方英尺，每月可管理 12,000 噸回收物。

These investments are helping plants to increase recycling recovery rates, and the company expects the new tech to add $240 million to its bottom line over the next four years.

這些投資正在幫助工廠提高回收利用率，公司預計新技術將在未來四年內為公司增加 2.4 億美元的收入。

The WM Cleveland facility prior was a commercial recycling plant, so we could not offer single stream commercial recycling.

WM 克利夫蘭工廠之前是一家商業回收廠，是以我們不能提供單一的商業回收。

This investment now has opened up our capacity to both residential and commercial recycling.

現在，這項投資使我們能夠同時進行住宅和商業回收。

We're able to provide single stream recycling for them.

我們可以為他們提供單流回收。

One of WM's upgrades involves automating its recycling plants with optical sorters powered by A.I.

WM 的升級項目之一是利用人工智能驅動的光學分揀機實現回收工廠的自動化。

So behind me is one of 12 optical scanners within our process system.

我身後是我們流程系統中 12 臺光學掃描儀中的一臺。

The optical scanners are made to pick 900 to 1,000 pics per minute.

光學掃描儀每分鐘可掃描 900 至 1 000 張照片。

Through programming and imaging, it identifies a specific product and there's an air jet that then identifies that product onto a conveyor over to the baler to be baled for the end user.

通過編程和成像，它可以識別特定的產品，然後用噴氣機將產品識別到輸送機上，送往打包機為最終用戶打包。

It makes the sorting go a lot faster.

這樣排序速度會快很多。

It removes human error.

它消除了人為錯誤。

And what they found is that it really boosts not only the quantity of what they call recovered materials, but they're getting a better quality.

他們發現，這不僅提高了所謂回收材料的數量，還提高了品質。

It's cleaner.

更乾淨

It's not a jumble of other stuff in there.

裡面沒有雜亂無章的其他東西。

So they're spending a lot of money to automate these recycling facilities in order to boost efficiency.

是以，為了提高效率，他們花費了大量資金來實現這些回收設施的自動化。

Where we have made these investments, we're lowering our operating costs by reducing some of the labor intensity of the business.

在我們進行這些投資的地方，我們通過降低部分業務的勞動強度來降低營運成本。

All that stuff goes to these facilities where it's sorted into different materials, you know, mixed paper, corrugated cardboard, clear bottles.

所有這些東西都會被送到這些設施，在那裡被分揀成不同的材料，你知道，混合紙、瓦楞紙板、透明瓶子。

That all gets separated.

這一切都被分開了。

That's a very intense labor, not a very pleasant job.

那是一項非常緊張的勞動，不是一份令人愉快的工作。

These companies have a really hard time keeping people in those jobs.

這些公司真的很難留住這些工作崗位上的人。

And these optical sorters have already begun to increase revenue.

這些光學分揀機已經開始增加收入。

Recyclables have become an increasingly valuable commodity themselves as more companies promise to use recycled packaging.

隨著越來越多的公司承諾使用可回收包裝，可回收材料本身也變得越來越珍貴。

There's a big shortage of the materials, of recycled material, that companies like Coca-Cola or Amazon or whoever uses a lot of plastic and paper can reuse for new packaging.

可口可樂、亞馬遜等公司或其他使用大量塑膠和紙張的公司可以重複利用這些材料來製作新包裝，但回收材料卻嚴重短缺。

So the race is on to really get that stuff out of the waste stream.

是以，如何真正從廢物流中去除這些東西的競賽正在進行。

And companies are willing to pay up for those materials, even though they're more expensive, because they've told their investors and their customers they're going to clean up their act.

公司願意為這些材料買單，儘管它們的價格更高，因為它們已經告訴投資者和客戶，它們將清理自己的行為。

Plus, more cleanly sorted recyclables fetch a higher price.

此外，分類更乾淨的可回收物價格更高。

WM says the optical sorters are able to increase blended commodity value by about 15 percent per ton.

WM 稱，光學分揀機可將每噸混合商品的價值提高約 15%。

And the company expects that it will be able to recover 25 percent more reusable materials by 2025.

公司預計，到 2025 年，可再利用材料的回收率將提高 25%。

We're continuously looking at that algorithm to make sure that we capture more material long term.

我們一直在研究這種算法，以確保我們能長期捕捉到更多素材。

And sustainability investments are even going back to one of WM's core businesses, collections.

可持續發展投資甚至又回到了 WM 的核心業務之一--收款。

People need to do the job right at the start.

人們需要在一開始就做好工作。

And we have a technology that we use called Smart Truck that helps us with that.

我們有一項名為 "智能卡車 "的技術，可以幫助我們做到這一點。

Smart Trucks come equipped with cameras.

智能卡車配備攝像頭。

When the truck tips recyclables into its hopper, its tech captures footage of the materials for a team of technicians to review.

當卡車將可回收材料倒入料斗時，它的技術人員會捕捉到材料的畫面，供一組技術人員查看。

These technicians scan for any objects that can't be recycled and monitor the amount of recyclables.

這些技術人員會掃描任何不能回收的物品，並監控可回收物品的數量。

If WM detects misplaced recyclables or overflowing bins, it sends a notification to its commercial and residential customers informing them of the issue.

如果 WM 發現可回收物品放錯地方或垃圾箱溢出，就會向商業和住宅客戶發送通知，告知他們相關問題。

In our regions where we have that Smart Truck technology, we've seen residue reduce roughly 20 percent.

在我們擁有智能卡車技術的地區，殘留物大約減少了 20%。

In those markets.

在這些市場中

So that's key.

所以這是關鍵。

Let's just say a really dirty pizza box mixed in with paper.

不如說是一個非常髒的披薩盒和紙混在一起。

You know that good paper or good cardboard gets contaminated and then it can't be recycled.

要知道，好紙或好紙板被汙染後就無法回收了。

Much of this technology is already in place today.

其中大部分技術如今已經到位。

We definitely think about the materials that are in our landfills as just that.

我們肯定會把垃圾填埋場中的材料視為垃圾。

Materials, they're a resource.

材料是一種資源。

What we think of as trash, a lot of it is really some of the hottest commodities of the green economy.

我們認為的垃圾，很多其實是綠色經濟中最熱門的商品。

Microsoft Mechanics

微軟機械