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Difficulty: MediumResolving Paradoxes and Discrepancies

In 2024, a coastal municipality enacted a strict ordinance prohibiting food-service establishments from using single-use plastic takeaway containers, aiming to curb plastic waste. Municipal sanitation records show that in the year following the ordinance, the total number of single-use plastic packaging items collected from commercial areas dropped by 25 percent. However, data recorded at the city's primary landfill revealed a 15 percent increase in the total weight of discarded plastic material over the exact same period. Which of the following, if true, most helps to resolve the apparent paradox described above?

  1. The ordinance applied exclusively to consumer food packaging, while heavy industrial manufacturing in the municipality expanded rapidly during the same period, generating large amounts of dense plastic scrap.Answer
  2. B
    Many local residents continued to purchase single-use plastic goods from e-commerce retailers based outside the municipality's regulatory jurisdiction.
  3. C
    Most restaurants complied with the ordinance by switching to lightweight aluminum containers that are easier for municipal services to collect.
  4. D
    The municipal landfill recently upgraded its automated sorting equipment to separate recyclable paper products from general waste.
  5. E
    Municipal officials raised tipping fees for commercial garbage trucks entering the landfill to encourage private waste diversion programs.

Answer

The correct option is the one stating that the ordinance applied exclusively to consumer food packaging while heavy industrial manufacturing expanded rapidly, generating large amounts of dense plastic scrap.
The correct choice reconciles both facts by distinguishing between the scope of the ordinance (consumer food packaging) and another major source of plastic waste (industrial manufacturing). If industrial manufacturing expanded and generated heavy plastic scrap, the total weight of plastic entering the landfill could easily rise by 15% even as consumer packaging items fell by 25%.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the two contradictory facts in the stimulus.
Fact 1: Plastic takeaway packaging items collected dropped by 25%. Fact 2: Total weight of plastic material at the landfill increased by 15%.
Resolving a paradox requires clearly defining the two statements that seem mutually inconsistent.
2
Evaluate the choices to find a factor that allows both facts to be true simultaneously.
Industrial plastic scrap (not covered by the ordinance) increased total plastic weight, even though consumer packaging item count fell.
A valid resolution introduces a third factor that reconciles count versus weight across different waste categories.

Key Concept

Resolving Paradoxes through Scope and Category Differentiation
Estimated Time:1m 30s
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Topics

Resolving Paradoxes and Discrepancies

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