V07-18

After hours of confusion, I post my explanation of this passage which might help others.

Fact 1: Plastic recycling is less widely practiced than aluminium recycling.
Fact 2: The weight of plastic bottles in household garbage declined by a greater percentage than the weight of aluminium cans.

Beverage containers - Ketchup bottles, Tinned Tuna etc.

To understand this passage, we have to make a distinction clear.

-> A piece of garbage, if not recycled, reaches domestic garbage, and a piece of garbage, if recycled, does not reach domestic garbage.

If plastic recycling is less widely practiced than aluminium recycling, then more and more plastic bottles would NOT have been recycled compared to aluminium bottles -> So, there will be more plastic bottles in the domestic garbage than aluminium bottles -> This means that the weight of plastic bottles in household garbage WOULD NOT HAVE declined by a greater percentage than the weight of aluminium cans. But, the result is just the opposite.

The correct answer choice must explain how the weight of plastic bottles in garbage declined by a greater percentage than the weight of aluminum cans, even though plastic recycling is less widely practiced.

So, apart from recycling, there should be some other factor. What if people start dumping far fewer plastic bottles? So, even when plastic recycling is NOT that widespread, this fact might help explain why "The weight of plastic bottles in household garbage declined by a greater percentage than the weight of aluminium cans"

Let's check the answers now:

A. Weight of plastic > Weight of aluminium. If this were true and combined with the fact that "Plastic recycling is less widely practiced than aluminum recycling", the weight of plastic bottles in domestic SHOULD NOT HAVE declined by a greater percentage than the weight of aluminum cans. But, the opposite has happened and still this doesn't explain the situation at hand.

B. Of all recycled aluminium cans, most of them are beverage containers. Of all recycled plastic bottles, a significant number had other non-beverage remains. Nowhere in the passage, it has been mentioned that plastic bottles are only used for beverages and hence it doesn't do justice to explain the situation.

C. If beverage manufacturers start using polymer containers instead of more of plastic bottles, then household people who buy these beverages will have far fewer plastic bottles to dispose off. This will result in far fewer plastic bottles reaching the domestic garbage and there would be a huge decline in the number of plastic bottles reaching the domestic garbage compared to aluminium bottles.

For ex.
Year 2000, out of 200 plastic bottles, 100 were recycled and 100 were discarded.
Year 2010, out of 100 plastic bottles(manufacturers have switched to polymer bottles, hence low number), 100 were recycled(same recycling capacity) and 0 were discarded.

So, the number of plastic bottles reaching the garbage(discarded bottles) has declined by 100 %(100 -> 0)

D. If this were, households will have more plastic bottles to dispose off and still it doesn't explain the situation at hand.

E. Clearly out of scope as sorting is not important here.

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