Online shopping uses a lot of shipping, which isn’t great for the environment. That’s especially true if something needs to be returned. 【小题1】

Slow it down

【小题2】 This will give the company more time to plan and completely fill the trucks with goods（货物）, which means fewer trucks are needed and less energy is used.

Buy everything at once

If you’re buying more than one thing, try to order everything at the same time so there’s a better chance the things will come in one box. 【小题3】 Sometimes the items may be shipped from different places.

Pick it up

Some stores let you order online, then you may pick up your order yourself from somewhere nearby. This means more goods are sent to one place instead of being driven to different homes. 【小题4】

【小题5】

If you buy something online from a company that also has stores near you, take anything you need to return there instead of shipping it. Things that are returned to stores normally stay there. But when you use shipping to return something, it may be driven to many different places before it is sold to someone else.

How do you deal with plastic bags from the supermarket? Throw them away or reuse them? How about eating them?

EnviGreen in India has made a bag with natural ingredients (成分). It looks and feels just like plastic, but can be broken down. The bags bring no harm to the environment. Both humans and animals can safely eat them. EnviGreen founder Ashwath Hedge spent four years trying out such a thing of 12 natural ingredients. They include potatoes, corn, vegetable oil and bananas. He made the ingredients into liquid (液体) and used the liquid to make the bag.

Although the EnviGreen bags are much more expensive than those usual plastic bags, they are good for our environment. Usually, it takes 1, 000 years for usual plastic bags to break down. But an EnviGreen bag can be naturally broken down in less than 180 days. It can also be broken down in less than a day in water, and in about 15 seconds in boiling water. Maybe the EnviGreen bag could be a solution to the world problem of plastic pollution.

More than two billion tons of rubbish is created around the world every year. Rubbish influences not only the environment but human health. 【小题1】

A history of rubbish

On the Greek island, waste was put in pits (坑) and covered with soil as far back as 5,000 years ago. 【小题2】 However, in many countries, waste was once just left in the streets. In the 19th century, governments realized this caused air pollution and spread diseases.

Environmental problems

It’s said that around one billion tons of waste are burned each year. 【小题3】 Burning waste can also produce chemicals (化学物质) that can make people ill. Landfill also causes climate change and pollutes rivers where people get their drinking water.

The role of recycling

Recycling is when something is used again. 【小题4】 Recycling allows the Earth’s natural resources (资源) to be reused to make new products. Natural resources include fuels under the ground like gas and oil, and things like fresh water for drinking.

Cleaning up

Cutting down the rubbish and recycling are important for the environment and the planet’s future. 【小题5】 It has an activity called the Great Global Cleanup to encourage people to pick up rubbish from beaches, parks, rivers and streets.