Building a House With Diapers用纸尿布建造房屋

A group of scientists has come upwith an unusual way to solve a messyproblem. They’ve taken dirty diapers， andused them to replace some of the sandneeded to build a house with concrete2.

Concrete is one of the most commonbuilding materials in the world. It’s usedto construct3 many things， includingroads， sidewalks， and buildings. Concreteis usually made by mixing together sand，water， and cement4.

But making concrete creates a lot ofpollution. And it uses a lot of sand. Mining5 for sand creates other problemsfor the environment.

A scientist had an unusual idea.What if some of the sand in concretecould be replaced with used disposable6diapers？

Diapers are a huge source ofpollution. In the US alone， over 3.6billion kilograms of them are thrownaway each year. These end up taking upspace in landfills7.

一组科学家想出了一个不同寻常的方法来解决一个棘手的问题。他们拿了脏纸尿布，用它们代替了用混凝土建造房子所需的一些沙子。

混凝土是世界上最常见的建筑材料之一。它被用来建造许多东西，包括马路、人行道和建筑物。混凝土通常由沙子、水和水泥混合而成。

但是制造混凝土会造成大量污染。而且它会使用很多沙子。开采沙子会给环境带来其他问题。

一位科学家有个不同寻常的想法。如果混凝土中的一些沙子可以用用过的一次性纸尿布代替呢？

纸尿布是一个巨大的污染源。仅在美国，每年就有超过36 亿公斤的尿布被丢弃。这些最终占据了垃圾填埋场的空间。

So the scientist and her team setout to study the problem. They collectedused diapers， cleaned them up， andtreated the diapers to get rid of any badgerms8. Then the diapers were dried andcut into small pieces that could beadded to concrete.

The researchers tested out theiridea by making different mixes ofconcrete with different amounts of shredded9 diapers. They found that thisnew kind of concrete was just as safeand strong as regular concrete. It alsodidn’t have any harmful germs in it.

Overall， the scientists say thatdiapers could replace up to 8% of thesand used in the concrete needed to builda house. In the parts of a house thatsupport a lot of weight， 10% of the sandcould be replaced with shredded diapers.In areas that don’t have to support muchweight， as much as 40% of the sand couldbe replaced with diapers.

The scientists didn’t just test thestrength of the concrete. They actuallybuilt a small concrete house to testtheir ideas.

The researchers think their ideacould make it less expensive to buildhomes. After all， sand needs to be mined，which costs money. Used diapers arebasically free.

因此，这位科学家和她的团队着手研究这个问题。他们收集用过的纸尿布，把它们清理干净，并对纸尿布进行处理，以去除任何有害细菌。然后，他们将纸尿布烘干，切成小块，加入混凝土中。

研究人员通过用不同数量的碎纸尿片制作不同的混凝土混合物来测试他们的想法。他们发现这种新型混凝土和普通混凝土一样安全和坚固。它里面也没有任何有害的细菌。

总的来说，科学家们表示，纸尿布可以取代建造房屋所需混凝土中多达8%的沙子。在房子里承受较大重量的部分，10%的沙子可以用切碎的纸尿布代替。在不需要支撑太大重量的地方，多达40%的沙子可以被换成切碎的纸尿布。

科学家们不仅仅测试了混凝土的强度。他们实际上还建造了一座小型混凝土房屋来测试他们的点子。

研究人员认为他们的想法可以降低建造房屋的成本。毕竟，沙子需要开采，这需要花钱。而用过的纸尿布基本上是免费的。

The scientists are excitedabout their results， but they realizethat there’s still a lot of work to bedone. If diapers are really going to beused in concrete， someone will have tofind out how to safely collect， clean，and store lots and lots of used diapers.

The team is still trying to find outhow that might work. They are alsostudying how well diaper concrete isable to block out heat and sound.

Perhaps the biggest challengewill be persuading people to useconcrete made with diapers. What doyou think？

科学家们对自己的成果感到兴奋，但他们意识到还有很多工作要做。如果真的要把纸尿布用于混凝土，就必须有人想出如何安全地收集、清洁和储存大量用过的纸尿布。

该团队仍在试图弄清楚这可能如何运作。他们也在研究尿布混凝土的隔热和隔音效果。

也许最大的挑战将是说服人们使用由纸尿布制成的混凝土。你怎么看？

（英语原文选自：newsforkids.net）