Namangupta1997 wrote:
Hi
AndrewN Everyone seems to have eliminated E very easily. I thought of it like, if there has to be some separation done of glass bottles before recycling them, maybe that is the reason they did not end up in the garbage and that would explain the decreasing weight percentage of the glass in garbage. Where did I go wrong ?
You went wrong,
Namangupta1997, in employing what I call one-step-removed reasoning, perhaps to justify an answer you wanted to be correct. The two facts that need reconciling are as follows:
1) Aluminum was recycled more than glass
2) In household garbage, the weight of glass bottles declined by a greater percentage than the weight of aluminum cans
We want to find a new piece of information that logically explains the discrepancy, since we would expect the more recycled aluminum cans to contribute less weight than before to household garbage. Consider how answer choice (E) would fit in:
Quote:
(E) In many areas, glass bottles had to be sorted by color of the glass before being recycled, whereas the aluminum cans required no sorting.
This might explain why people did not want to recycle glass bottles in certain areas—it was inconvenient—but it would not explain why they did not simply throw such waste into the garbage, a more convenient place to put it. The paradox remains. Now, consider answer choice (C):
Quote:
(C) Manufacturers replaced many glass bottles, but few aluminum cans, with plastic containers.
If there were many fewer glass bottles produced, then it makes sense that fewer of them ended up in household garbage, even if glass recycling was not as widely practiced as aluminum recycling. Notice that 2) above is a logical consequence of this newly introduced information, not a stretch by any means. Where you find less friction, you tend to find correct answers.
Perhaps the question makes more sense now. Thank you for thinking to ask.
- Andrew