国家地理:没有垃圾的世界可能存在吗(13)

The progress has stalled lately, but no one ever thought common sense alone would end food waste. Artificial intelligence may be required. From a remodeled Victorian furniture factory in the Shoreditch section of London, Marc Zornes, CEO of Winnow, is pitching a high-tech solution that his start-up already has placed into 1,300 restaurant kitchens: smart garbage cans.

最近的进展有所停滞，但也没人指望单靠常识终结食品浪费。我们可能需要人工智能的帮助。在伦敦肖迪奇区一家老家具厂改造的办公空间里，Winnow公司的执行总裁马克·佐恩斯在推销一种高科技解决方案--这家初创公司已经为1300家餐馆的厨房装上了智能垃圾箱。

Zornes demonstrated one in his conference room, using a plastic chicken leg. Each time a cook or waiter dumps a pot or platter of something into a Winnow can, a scale measures the added weight and a camera snaps a picture. The AI software identifies the new garbage -- at Ikea it has learned to distinguish three kinds of meatballs -- and displays its cost.

佐恩斯在会议室里用塑料鸡腿进行产品演示。每次厨师或侍者倒下锅碗中的弃物，智能垃圾桶会称量增加的重量并拍下照片。人工智能软件能够识别新增垃圾的种类--在宜家卖场它学会了区分三种不同的肉丸--并显示它们的成本。

Zornes claimed his clients -- AccorHotels, the French multinational, is another big one -- routinely cut food waste in half by listening to their garbage cans. Breakfast buffets are notorious, he said; most leftovers are discarded. "When you start measuring the problem, you start managing it," Zornes said. You make less of what you're throwing out. I had walked through Winnow's graffiti-decorated carriage doors expecting grooviness and hype; I walked out wanting to tell my nephew, a Ritz-Carlton chef, about Winnow.

佐恩斯称，他的客户通过听取垃圾桶的反馈，将日常浪费量降低了一半。自助早餐是浪费重灾区，大部分剩菜都被倒掉。“当你对一个问题有了量化的认识，就能开始对它加以掌控”，佐恩斯说。扔掉的食物自然会减少。我踏进Winnow公司那涂鸦装饰的对开大门时，预期的是天花乱坠的宣传，走出时却一心想把它的产品介绍给我在丽思卡尔顿当大厨的侄子。

A few days later I had a similar experience in Amsterdam at InStock, a restaurant that makes ambitious cuisine from surplus food. In a spare but cozily lit room, I sat down under a wooden sign that tallied the "rescued food" -- 780,054 kilograms, or more than 850 tons. One of the founders, Freke van Nimwegen, was at the bar checking the books. She joined me and told me her story as my prix fixe menu ran its courses.

几天后，我在阿姆斯特丹的InStock餐厅收获了类似的经历。这家餐馆使用过剩食材制作大胆的美味。在一间装饰简洁但灯光和暖的房间里，我在一块木牌下就坐，牌子上统计了餐厅挽救的食物总量--780054公斤，也就是超过850英吨。创始人之一弗里克·范尼姆维根在吧台对账，此时也坐过来，在我一道道吃完当晚菜品的过程中讲述了自己的故事。