If the city starts requiring residents to sort the materials that they

Question

If the city starts requiring residents to sort the materials that they put out for recycling, then many residents will put more recyclables in with their regular garbage. This will result in more recyclables being buried in the city's landfill. However, because of the cost of having city workers do the sorting, the sanitation department will not stay within its budget unless the sorting requirement for residents is implemented.

Which one of the following statements logically follows from the information above?

(A)  Most of the city's residents will continue to recycle even if a sorting requirement is implemented.

(B)  If the city starts requiring residents to sort their recyclables, then all of the residents who continue to recycle will sort their recyclables.

(C)  Implementing the sorting requirement would not cause the city's annual cost of sending garbage to its landfill to exceed its current annual cost of sorting recyclables.

(D)  The amount of recyclables going to the city's landfill will increase if the sanitation department stays within its budget.

(E)  If the city implements the sorting requirement, the sanitation department will stay within its budget.

GMATNinja · Accepted Answer

This is a tricky one! Let's break down the passage first.

The passage states that "the sanitation department will not stay within its budget unless the sorting requirement for residents is implemented." This means that having residents sort their recyclables is REQUIRED in order for the sanitation department to stay within its budget.

In addition, we know that if residents sort their own recyclables, many will put these items in the regular garbage, which "will result in more recyclables being buried in the city's landfill."

To answer the question, we must find an answer choice that "logically follows from the information above."

Now, let's take a look at answer choice (D):
 
We know from the passage that having residents sort their recyclables is REQUIRED in order for the sanitation department to stay within its budget. So, if the sanitation department stays within its budget (as stated in this answer choice), then the sorting requirement for residents MUST be implemented. Further, we know that if the sorting requirement is implemented, then more recyclables will end up in the city's landfill.

So, it follows logically that if the sanitation department stays within its budget, the amount of recyclables going to the city's landfill will increase. (D) is the correct answer.

Let's address your specific questions:

We cannot take this for granted! Note that having residents sort recyclables instead of city workers doing so is a  minimum requirement  for the sanitation department to stay within its budget. So, the department will definitely NOT stay within budget unless the residents sort their recyclables -- which is very different than saying that the department definitely WILL stay within budget if this plan is implemented.

Yes, there could be many other factors that lead to the sanitation department exceeding its budget. But again, the key is to realize that residents MUST sort their recycling in order for the sanitation department to have any chance to stay within its budget.

I hope that helps!

Charu11111 · Answer

Can anybody explain me this? I thought the answer should be E but it is D and I am not able to figure out why.

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patto · Answer

This is a tough question. It involves conditional reasoning.
Look:

Statement (1): Sorting (necessary condition) ---> Increase GR (suffient condition)

Statement (2): Increase GR (necessary condition) ----> Increase LR (suffient condition)

Statement (3): Budget (necessary condition) ---> Sorting (suffient condition)

Then, we can conclude

Budget --> Sorting --> Increase GR --> Increase LR

Therefore, we can conclude that Budget --> Increase LR. That's exactly what D says.

Instead, E says that Sorting --> Budget. That's not what we can deduce from the argument.

I hope it's useful.

Debashis Roy · Answer

GMATNinja 
Though it is mentioned in the argument : "because of the cost of having city workers do the sorting, the sanitation department will not stay within its budget", while drawing the logical inference, can we take it for granted that the city will definitely remain within its budget if the sorting workers are not recruited...Cant there be some other ways which could lead to the sanitation dept exceeding its budget even without the implementation of sorting workers....

This is the reason I left D

Shrinidhi · Answer

I think ....I somewhat understood this!

So if Segregation by residents is implemented,then residents would lazily put the Recyclables too in the regular Garbage .

The regular garbage segregation at the land fill will cost heavily for the department of it's done by the workers at the landfill. so, because of this Segregation by residents needs to be implemented.

And if the segregation of the Recyclables by the residents is implemented,then naturally residents will put all of it in Regular Garbage and that would increase the landfill. that's what option D states and correctly follows.

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gauranggarg · Answer

Can anyone explain why C isn't a must be true? Thanks in advance

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ShreyasJavahar · Answer

Firstly, making the residents sort their recyclables is the bare minimum the sanitation department can do to stay within budget.

Now we do not know what the current cost of sorting recyclables is; it could be 50% over the budget, 10%, 1%, within budget, anything really. Similarly, we are unaware as to what the current cost of sending garbage to the landfills is.
Once people start throwing more of their recyclables in with their regular garbage, the cost of sending this garbage to the landfills could increase(more garbage -> more trips to the landfill). That increase could be 49.999% over the budget(if the cost of sorting recyclables is 50% over the budget as mentioned above), or it might not go over the budget at all. Essentially it does not exceed the current cost of sorting recyclables and we have no idea what that cost is. 
This statement therefore does not logically follow the information in the passage as we can't say with certainty whether the sanitation department stays within budget or not.

P.S. I picked C for this as well, didn't spend enough of thinking through it thoroughly.

aalalal · Answer

I do not get it why it is not E. Can some please explain?

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krndatta · Answer

Hi aalalal , I am not an expert but I think I can add two cents. The passage mentions that "if the sorting requirement is not implemented for residents, then the city department will not stay with in its budget". This is because the city department would have to do the sorting and the budget would increase. However, the question stem asks us what "logically follows". We can't be sure that if we implement the sorting requirement, the sanitation department will stay within its budget. This is not necessarily that follows. There could be other reasons too for the sanitation department to exceed the given budget such as increase in manpower or increase in salaries. etc. Hence, not implementing the requirement does not mean it will remain in the budget. However, option D(https://gmatclub.com/forum/if-the-city- ... l#p2247369) as explained by GMAT Ninja above correctly showcases how option D is correct. KarishmaB ma'am request your evaluation.

KarishmaB · Answer

Given in the argument: the sanitation department will not stay within its budget unless the sorting requirement for residents is implemented.

Unless can be converted to 'If not' to get the implications of the condition.

Given in the argument: If sorting is not implemented, dept will not stay within budget.

What does this if-then statement imply? Only two things:
If we know that sorting was not implemented, we can say that the dept did not stay within budget. 
If we know that the dept stayed within budget, we know that sorting was implemented.

(D) The amount of recyclables going to the city's landfill will increase if the sanitation department stays within its budget.
If we know that the sanitation dept stayed within budget, we can say that sorting was implemented. If sorting was implemented, we know that garbage going into landfill would have increased. Hence, (D) is correct. It follows logically from the given argument.

(A) Most of the city's residents will continue to recycle even if a sorting requirement is implemented.

We don't know whether most will continue to recycle. We are only given that many will reduce recycling. Whether most will continue recycling or not, we don't know.

(B) If the city starts requiring residents to sort their recyclables, then all of the residents who continue to recycle will sort their recyclables.

We don't know how many residents will follow the sorting requirement.

(C) Implementing the sorting requirement would not cause the city's annual cost of sending garbage to its landfill to exceed its current annual cost of sorting recyclables.

We don't know which cost is higher since they are not compared in the argument.

(E) If the city implements the sorting requirement, the sanitation department will stay within its budget.

We know what happens if the sorting is NOT implemented (city doesn't stay within budget). But we do not know what happens when sorting is implemented. There could be other reasons why the city exceeds its budget or it may not exceed its budget - we don't know.

Remember, 'If A then B' implies only 2 things:
Given A, B follows.
Given 'not B,' 'not A' follows

unraveled · Answer

If the city starts requiring residents to sort the materials that they put out for recycling, then many residents will put more recyclables in with their regular garbage. This will result in more recyclables being buried in the city's landfill. However, because of the cost of having city workers do the sorting, the sanitation department will not stay within its budget unless the sorting requirement for residents is implemented.

Which one of the following statements logically follows from the information above?

(A)  Most of the city's residents will continue to recycle even if a sorting requirement is implemented. - WRONG. Not at all inferable.

(B)  If the city starts requiring residents to sort their recyclables, then  all of the residents who continue to recycle  will sort their recyclables. - WRONG. Bigger issue is with "all".

(C)  Implementing the sorting requirement would not cause the  city's annual cost of sending garbage to its landfill  to exceed its current annual cost of sorting recyclables. - WRONG. Spent a lot of time on this but its wrong for 2 reasons. First, where did 'city's annual cost of sending garbage to its landfill' come from and second a comparison is not inferable when the red text is not in the passage.

(D)  The amount of recyclables going to the city's landfill will increase if the sanitation department stays within its budget. - CORRECT. To the point answer.

(E)  If the city implements the sorting requirement, the sanitation department will stay within its budget. - WRONG. This is a direct conflict with the passage. If A then B is in the passage but in this choice it's If A then not B - think contra analogy-wise.

Answer D.

Radyah · Answer

I was confused between D and E, and ended up choosing E because it can be inferred from the last line of the argument. Logically, both E and D make sense to me. So, can someone tell me why E is wrong here?

MartyMurray · Answer

Let's compare (E) with the last line of the passage.

Here's the last line:

However, because of the cost of having city workers do the sorting, the sanitation department will not stay within its budget unless the sorting requirement for residents is implemented.

Here's (E):

(E) If the city implements the sorting requirement, the sanitation department will stay within its budget.

Analyzing the two statements carefully, we see that there is a key difference between them.

"The sanitation department will not stay within its budget unless the sorting requirement ... is implemented," means that the sorting requirement is NECESSARY for the department to stay within it's budget. In other words, it means that the department will not stay within its budget without the requirement.

Notice that that statement does not communicate what will happen if the requirement is implemented. All we know for sure from that statement is what will happen if the requirement is not implemented.

In contrast, (E) does say what will happen if the requirement is implemented: "the sanitation department will stay within its budget." In other words, (E) communicates that implementing the requirement is SUFFICIENT for the sanitation department to stay within its budget.

So, we can see that (E) is not supported by the passage, which indicates that implementing the requirement is only necessary, rather than sufficient, for the department to stay within its budget.

RiyaJ0032 · Answer

Hi  KarishmaB  !

Just wanted to ask here that is the stem telling us that the city has sorting going on in place?

what if the sorting is not done by the city until now?

Your claim that - "If sorting is not implemented, dept will not stay within budget"

only follows if we know that there is sorting done in the city, and since residents are not doing it, it's the workers who are doing it

but the stem has not cleared whether there is sorting done or not

It can be that there is no sorting done right?

in that case, sanitation workers are not doing it

and hence the budget is in check

so even if sorting is not done, budget won't be affected

can some expert please give their insights, will be really helpful
Thank you!

DmitryFarber 
 egmat 
 GMATNinja 
 napolean92728

egmat · Answer

Great question!  You've identified a crucial point that many test-takers miss. Let me clarify this important aspect of the argument.

The Key Insight: Sorting IS Currently Happening
 
The passage actually  does  tell us that sorting is currently being done by city workers. The critical phrase is:
 
This phrase reveals that:

City workers are currently doing the sorting (or would have to do it if residents don't) 
 This sorting by city workers is expensive 
 The department needs residents to take over this sorting to stay within budget  
 
Why Your Alternative Scenario Doesn't Work
 
You suggested: "What if no sorting is done at all currently?"
If no sorting were happening, the passage wouldn't mention "the cost of having city workers do the sorting." You can't have a cost for something that isn't happening! The very fact that they're concerned about this cost tells us sorting  must  be occurring (or would need to occur).
 
The Logical Chain 
Here's how the argument flows:

Current situation:  City workers sort recyclables → This is expensive   
  Proposed change:  Make residents sort instead  
   Budget constraint:  Department can ONLY stay within budget if residents do the sorting   
  Therefore:  If department stays within budget → residents must be sorting → more recyclables go to landfill (as stated in first sentence)

This leads directly to answer choice  D: "The amount of recyclables going to the city's landfill will increase if the sanitation department stays within its budget." 
 
GMAT Strategy Tip 
In Critical Reasoning, pay close attention to phrases that reveal  implied  information. The GMAT often embeds crucial facts within seemingly casual mentions. When you see "the cost of X," it implies X is happening. When you see "the time required for Y," it implies Y occurs. These subtle implications are often key to solving the problem!

RiyaJ0032 · Answer

This is clear to me

Thank you so much for explaining with such detail and clarity!

If the city starts requiring residents to sort the materials that they

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If the city starts requiring residents to sort the materials that they

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