V38-19

Question

City Councilor Statement: The majority of urban flooding in Centerville is caused by improper disposal of waste, which clogs the city's drainage systems during heavy rainfalls. As most of this waste comes from disposable plastic products, the city proposes to ban the use of all plastics. By implementing this ban, we believe that we will significantly reduce urban flooding incidents.
 
Which of the following, if true, most strongly supports the claim that the proposal, if carried out, will have the announced effect?

A. Single-use plastics decompose much slower than other waste, prolonging blockages.
B. The disposal of single-use plastics in Centerville consumes more resources and energy than any other type of disposable products, thus if single-use plastics are banned, the city would have multiple benefits.
C. Cities that have banned single-use plastics have observed significant reductions in landfill waste and improvements in overall environmental quality.
D. The cost of cleaning the city's drainage systems after floods is significantly higher than the projected costs of enforcing the plastic ban.
E. Centerville's drainage system efficiently processes non-plastic materials, which rarely contribute to drainage blockages.

Bunuel · Answer

Official Solution:

City Councilor Statement: The majority of urban flooding in Centerville is caused by improper disposal of waste, which clogs the city's drainage systems during heavy rainfalls. As most of this waste comes from disposable plastic products, the city proposes to ban the use of all plastics. By implementing this ban, we believe that we will significantly reduce urban flooding incidents.
 
Which of the following, if true, most strongly supports the claim that the proposal, if carried out, will have the announced effect?

A. Single-use plastics decompose much slower than other waste, prolonging blockages.
B. The disposal of single-use plastics in Centerville consumes more resources and energy than any other type of disposable products, thus if single-use plastics are banned, the city would have multiple benefits.
C. Cities that have banned single-use plastics have observed significant reductions in landfill waste and improvements in overall environmental quality.
D. The cost of cleaning the city's drainage systems after floods is significantly higher than the projected costs of enforcing the plastic ban.
E. Centerville's drainage system efficiently processes non-plastic materials, which rarely contribute to drainage blockages.

CORRECT: (E) Centerville's waste management system efficiently processes non-plastic materials, which rarely contribute to drainage blockages.
 
So our plan is to ban the disposable plastics in hopes that it would help fix the drainage and flooding issues but what if the drainage is caused by something else? This answer choice tells us that the plan has a great degree of success by helping point out that it the system can handle the other waste which is not banned and thus if we ban the plastics, we should be good. This may not be the answer you were expecting but GMAT has these harder pesky questions that instead of strengthening the plan, make it less weak. This one of those. 
 
INCORRECT. (A) talks about the long life of plastics but the drainage system is not designed to decompose debris - it just flushes the water through; I hope nobody is trying to improve drainage by decomposition. The process of decomposing takes a while even for leaves and tree debris, and if we had to wait for blockages to be resolved through decomposing, that would take a while. We are not expecting the system to work as a compost pile anyway but rather to transport water and not get clogged by debris. Eliminate.
 
INCORRECT. (B) tells us that there are many benefits to ban single-use plastics but it does not prove that the single-use plastics ban will be effective for flood control. We still don&rsquo;t know. Eliminate.
 
INCORRECT. (C) is also irrelevant when it comes to evaluating the argument and proving that the strategy will be effective. Eliminate.
 
INCORRECT. (D) is also an indirect argument why banning single-use plastics is good but it does not give us a reason why it will succeed. Just being good or positive is not good enough. Eliminate. &shy;

Answer: E

_neerajaa · Answer

I think this is a  poor-quality  question and I don't agree with the explanation. I believe the answer should be A. The passage already tells us that the majority of the debris is single use plastic. Choice A confirms that rest of the debris (post banning plastic) will not cause flooding. 
Choice E is just repeating what we already know in the passage.

bb · Answer

Thank you. You have a point. This can indeed be argued and it would be a second correct answer. 
The question is rated easy in the tests (surprisingly) so I like your harder approach and even though this answer is imperfect, I am inclined to use it to make the question harder. I have added 2 weeks of GMAT Club tests for your help in making the question better!

I have updated Answer choices A.

ck77 · Answer

I think the answer should be A and NOT E. The proposal talks about eliminating plastic to reduce blockages. Sure non-plastic being easily processed may sound like strengthening but option A indicates that support that plastic is indeed harder to decompose and thus eliminating it would indeed reduce blockages. Option E in my opinion is rather irrelevant to the premise and the conclusion drawn (almost like a trap answer)

bb · Answer

Hi thank you for the question.

A) could be the correct answer if decomposition mattered but I am not sure how it ties into blockages. Let's say plastics takes 1000 years to decompose and wood branches only 3 years.... how knowing this information help the plan if we are told that most of the waste comes from disposable plastic products and we will be eliminating them? Plus, decomposition is not something we are looking for the drainage system to do.

sahiti220620 · Answer

bb  why is d wrong?

hr1212 · Answer

Hi  sahiti220620 ,

It’s always good to keep in mind the question you are trying to solve or the conclusion in discussion. If you read the last statement of the argument it’s saying that this proposal would reduce the urban flooding incidents and not the economic cost. D tries to bring in real world challenges to distract you from the point in discussion and hence it’s the incorrect choice.

bb · Answer

Answer choice E) has been improved - thank you  possimusquidem  for your suggestion.

V38-19

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