A recent national study of the trash discarded in several representati

Question

A recent national study of the trash discarded in several representative areas confirmed that plastics constitute a smaller proportion of all trash than paper products do, whether the trash is measured by weight or volume. The damage that a given weight or volume of trash does to the environment is roughly the same whether the trash consists of plastics or paper products. Contrary to popular opinion, therefore, the current use of plastics actually does less harm to the environment nationwide than that of paper products.

Which one of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument?

(A) A given weight of paper of product may increase in volume after manufacture and before being discarded as trash

(B) According to popular opinion, volume is a more important consideration than weight in predicting the impact of a given quantity of trash on the environment

(C) The sum of damage caused to the environment by paper trash and by plastic trash is greater than that caused by any other sort of trash that was studied.

(D) The production of any paper product is more harmful to the environment than is the production of an equal weight or volume of any plastic

(E) The proportion of plastic trash to paper trash varies from one part of the country to another.

mandyrhtdm · Answer

A) A given weight of paper of product may increase in volume after manufacture and before being discarded as trash :  Against the argument 
B) According to popular opinion, volume is a more important consideration than weight in predicting the impact of a given quantity of trash on the environment 
C) The sum of damage caused to the environment by paper trash and by plastic trash is greater than that caused by any other sort of trash that was studied.
D) THe production of any paper product is more harmful to the environment than is the production of an equal weight or volume of any plastic
E) The proportion of plastic trash to paper trash varies from one part of the country to another.

Please give your explanations for sure. OA to arrive later.

D is the answer as both cause equal damage when in trash but paper causes more damage when it is produced.

joshnsit · Answer

Can you please explain how does A goes against the argument?
If the paper trash increases in volume, then amount of paper trash would increase wrt volume of plastic. 
Th conclusion says that : the current  use  of plastics actually does less harm to the environment nationwide than that of paper products.

If A says that volume increases after manufacture and before discarded as trash, then it means that volume/trash increases in case of paper(i.e. it qualifies the  current use  condition) though doesn't happen in case of plastic. Shouldn't that strengthen the conclusion?

geno5 · Answer

D. Strengthens the conclusion by saying that the  production  of paper is more harmful then plastic therefore paper must bemore harmful since waste damage is the same.

In A even though the volume increases the argument says that whether measured by weight or volume the damage from discarding is the same whether paper or plastic.

joshnsit · Answer

@mandyrhtdm. I got your point. Since the Conclusion is:  The current use of plastics actually does less harm to the environment nationwide than that of paper products.  So, choice A actually strengthens if it says paper weight or volume increases relatively to plastic.

Thanks for discussion, guys.  OA is  D .

sobby · Answer

Yes D seems to be best....
A--out of scope
B-indirectly it is questioning the premise -in premise we have " wt and vol does not matter .
C-out of scope - we are not considering other types of trash 
D - yes ,(Production(paper cause more damage) + use(same level damage for both paper n plastic) , over all paper is more harmful...
E-out of scope.

mykrasovski · Answer

We need to strengthen the argument. The conclusion says that plastic waste does less harm to the environment than paper waste does. So, options B, C, and E are out for quite obvious reasons. Let's review A and D.

Answer A  talks about paper waste, and it says that a unit of weight may increase in volume. Pay attention to logic - do we really care whether paper may or may not increase in volume? We should look for a statement that compares plastic and paper. Option A, however, tries to confuse us by "throwing" familiar terms from the passage, but it does not really do anything to the argument. In fact, the argument says already that paper, if measured by weight or volume, constitutes a large proportion of waste than plastic does. Option A is out for few reasons.

Answer D  brings up new information that illustrates that manufacturing of paper products harms the environment more than that of plastic. This is directly supporting the conclusion of the argument. Hence, option D is correct.

auradediligodo · Answer

Hi everyone,

Strengthen question

Our task is to strengthen the conclusion:  " paper  >  damaging than plastic "

Any information that says that paper is more harmful to the environment in other areas such as production or dismantling will be our strengthener.

Option E

nightblade354 · Answer

Nice explanation from Powerscore: https://forum.powerscore.com/lsat/viewtopic.php?t=9224 If people still have questions, tag me and I can do an explanation of my own.

TestPrepUnlimited · Answer

Correct answer: D

(A): Incorrect. Whether the paper product increases in weight after manufacture is irrelevant because the argument states that the damage a given volume of paper trash causes is equivalent to the damage caused by an equivalent volume of plastic trash. 
(B): Incorrect. Popular opinion does not bear on the actual damage caused by paper vs. plastic trash. 
(C): Incorrect. Irrelevant--the argument compares plastic and paper trash. 
(D): Correct. If production of paper is more harmful, and the harm caused by the waste is equal, then the use of paper is more harmful. 
(E): Incorrect. The proportion of plastic trash to paper trash does not bear on how harmful either form of trash is.

SheilyKamra · Answer

Can someone explain why D is correct? In my opinion, both paper and plastic do same damage per the passage. Conclusion is that current use of paper causes more harm than that of plastic.

CrackverbalGMAT · Answer

Hi Sheily

What you have stated is only partly true. The exact premise stated in the question stimulus is:

The damage that a given weight or volume of trash does to the environment is roughly the same whether the trash consists of plastics or paper products.

Therefore, to compare the damage caused by paper waste to plastic waste, it is necessary to know which kind of waste has greater volume and weight. Fortunately, the stimulus is very clear on this point:

A recent national study...confirmed that plastics constitute a smaller proportion of all trash than paper products

Therefor, prima facie, it is confirmed that that the end product of paper causes greater harm than the end product of plastic. In order to strengthen the argument, we are looking for something which shows another aspect of paper waste causing more harm than plastic waste (since the conclusion is about  use  of plastic and not just the products themselves).

(A) A given weight of paper of product may increase in volume after manufacture and before being discarded as trash  We need a comparison between paper and plastic in some respect since the conclusion does the same. Hence incorrect.

(B) According to popular opinion, volume is a more important consideration than weight in predicting the impact of a given quantity of trash on the environment  The passage states very clearly that paper causes more damage whether by volume or weight. Hence we are looking at reinforcing facts comparing paper and plastic. What happens to paper alone does not serve this purpose.

(C) The sum of damage caused to the environment by paper trash and by plastic trash is greater than that caused by any other sort of trash that was studied.  Again, we are looking for something that compares paper and plastic.

(D) The production of any paper product is more harmful to the environment than is the production of an equal weight or volume of any plastic  Correct.

(E) The proportion of plastic trash to paper trash varies from one part of the country to another.  This does not impact the author's argument as the conclusion is based on a national study.

achloes · Answer

nightblade354   AndrewN

Could you please confirm that my understanding of the passage is correct?

In 100 lbs of trash
Plastic = 5 lbs 
Paper products = 95 lbs

This sentence is saying that for a certain amount (100 lbs) of trash, the damage is the same, regardless of the split of plastic and paper. This implies that the damage from 1 lb of plastic is the same as the damage from 1 lb of paper.

Seeing that there is less plastic than paper in the trash, which is representative of our current use of the two materials, plastic as a whole is actually doing less harm than the paper we are consuming.

Thanks in advance!

nightblade354 · Answer

From this breakdown, it is my opinion that you did understand what it was saying.

unraveled · Answer

A recent national study of the trash discarded in several representative areas confirmed that plastics constitute a smaller proportion of all trash than paper products do, whether the trash is measured by weight or volume. The damage that a given weight or volume of trash does to the environment is roughly the same whether the trash consists of plastics or paper products. Contrary to popular opinion, therefore, the current use of plastics actually does less harm to the environment nationwide than that of paper products.

Which one of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument?

(A) A given weight of paper of product may increase in volume after manufacture and before being discarded as trash - WRONG. Okay, so what!! This one is like B only.

(B) According to popular opinion,  volume is a more important  consideration than weight in predicting the impact of a given quantity of trash on the environment - WRONG. Contradicts passage somewhat, so not relevant.

(C)  The sum of damage  caused to the environment by paper trash and by plastic trash is greater than that caused  by any other sort of trash  that was studied. - WRONG. Non of our concern. Other trash does not matter.

(D) The production of any paper product is  more harmful to the environment than  is the production of an  equal weight or volume  of any plastic - CORRECT.

(E) The proportion of plastic trash to paper trash  varies from one part of the country to another . - WRONG. Not impacting the conclusion.

Answer D.

Saikat23 · Answer

What is the assumption of the author here?

unraveled · Answer

Ringing the wrong bell!!!

A recent national study of the trash discarded in several representative areas confirmed that plastics constitute a smaller proportion of all trash than paper products do, whether the trash is measured by weight or volume. The damage that a given weight or volume of trash does to the environment is roughly the same whether the trash consists of plastics or paper products.  Contrary to popular opinion, therefore, the current use of plastics actually does less harm to the environment nationwide than that of paper products.

Do note that blue text is conclusion. Why is that such a conclusion is made? 
In strenghten/weaken question you need an external factor(information) that impacts the conclusion. And that additional information can be in the form of an assumption also, like in this case. But it is not necessary that assumption would be there in the choices always.

In D we have an assumption which if not true would not make sense for the conclusion to hold. The other choices are simply wayward to consider for.

HTHs.

VerbalBot · Answer

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