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Question

Difficulty: HardWeaken

Economist: Five years ago, the city of Vaelen instituted a per-bag fee for curbside trash collection while maintaining free, unlimited collection for recyclable materials. Over the subsequent four years, the total weight of residential trash collected by city haulers declined by 35 percent. Municipal officials concluded from this decline that the fee program successfully induced residents to adopt sustainable shopping habits and reduce the overall amount of waste generated in their homes.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the municipal officials' conclusion?

  1. A
    Surveys of neighboring municipalities that did not institute trash fees revealed that residential waste generation and consumer purchasing patterns remained unchanged over the same four-year period.
  2. B
    Municipal haulers frequently miscalculated the weight of collected trash during the initial six months of the program because the weighing mechanisms on collection vehicles were improperly calibrated.
  3. Audits of Vaelen's municipal recycling facilities revealed that nonrecyclable household refuse improperly deposited into residential recycling bins increased by an amount equal to the decrease in collected trash.Answer
  4. D
    Every household in Vaelen that composted food scraps prior to the implementation of the fee program continued to generate minimal amounts of organic kitchen refuse throughout the four years.
  5. E
    The total revenue collected from the per-bag disposal fees was insufficient to offset the city's administrative expenditures for printing and distributing the official waste tags.

Answer

The argument is most seriously weakened by the finding that nonrecyclable household refuse placed into curbside recycling bins increased by an amount equivalent to the decline in collected trash, showing that overall waste generation was merely displaced rather than reduced.
The conclusion claims that residents reduced their overall generation of household waste because curbside trash collection tonnage fell by 35 percent. The correct answer demonstrates that this drop was an artifact of waste displacement: residents merely placed their nonrecyclable trash into the free recycling bins to avoid paying the bag fee. Because the volume of trash placed in recycling bins equaled the reduction in trash bin tonnage, total household waste generation remained unchanged, directly invalidating the officials' conclusion.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the stimulus to isolate the premises and the main conclusion.
Premise: Curbside residential trash collected by city haulers dropped by 35% after introducing a per-bag fee alongside free recycling. Conclusion: The fee program caused residents to reduce the total amount of waste generated in their homes.
Weaken questions require identifying the precise gap between the evidence provided and the author's claim.
2
Identify the unstated assumption linking the premise to the conclusion.
The author assumes that a reduction in curbside trash collected reflects a genuine reduction in total household waste generated, rather than an illicit or alternate diversion of waste into other channels (such as the free recycling bin or illegal dumping).
An argument concluding a change in total generation based solely on measured collection in one specific stream assumes waste was not merely redirected.
3
Evaluate the answer choices for new information that breaks this assumption by providing an alternative explanation for the drop in collected curbside trash.
The finding that nonrecyclable refuse in recycling bins rose by an amount equal to the drop in trash collection demonstrates that total waste generation did not decrease, thereby directly refuting the officials' conclusion.
Providing evidence that the measured drop in one bin was entirely offset by contamination in the free bin eliminates the conclusion's empirical support.

Key Concept

Alternative Causal Explanations and Measurement Diversion Gaps
Estimated Time:1m 45s
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Topics

Weaken

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