Self-study
Support Waste management companies, which collect waste for disposal in landfills and incineration plants, report that disposable plastics make up an ever-increasing percentage of the waste they handle. ██ ██ █████ ████ ████████ ██ ████████ ███ ██████ ██ ███████ ████ ██████ █████ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ███ ████████
Argument Summary
The argument concludes that people are not decreasing how much plastic they throw away—the amount of plastic people throw away is either staying the same, or even increasing. We know this because of reports from waste management companies: they say there's an increasing percentage of plastic among the waste they handle.
Weaken: Percentage vs. Amount
If we look at the argument's premise, we can see it's talking about the percentage of plastic compared to other waste. However, the conclusion is about the total amount of plastic waste being generated. This inconsistency is what we can attack to weaken the argument. The correct answer will tell us that other types of waste are decreasing, which would allow the percentage of plastic waste to increase even if the amount of plastic waste is decreasing.
7.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████████ ███████ ███ █████████
a
Because plastics create ███████ ██████████ ████ ███████ ██ ██████████ ██████████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████ ██ █████ ██████████ █████████ ███ █████ ████████ ██ ██ ██████████
The argument isn't concerned with how waste management companies dispose of plastic. It's concerned with how much plastic waste is being generated in the first place, before the waste management company even picks it up. (A) doesn't help us undermine the claim that plastic waste is not decreasing.
b
Although many plastics ███ ███████████ ████ ██ ███ ████████ ████████ ██ ██ █████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ████
(B) is a trap answer trying to trick us into assuming that more plastic is being recycled, not thrown away. But the stimulus directly tells us that waste management companies, which don't handle recycling, are seeing a greater percentage of plastic waste. Whether or not that plastic could be recycled, it's still in fact being thrown away.
By bringing up plastic recycling, (B) misdirects us from the real issue of the stimulus confusing percentage and amount. We need to show that waste management companies' increased percentage of plastic could still represent a smaller overall amount, but (B) doesn't help us do that.
c
People are more ██████ ██ ████ ███ █████ ███████ ██████████ ████ ██████████ ████ ██ ███████ █████████ ████ █████ ██ ██████
How frequently different types of containers are reused doesn't impact the argument, because it doesn't help us show that plastic waste is not increasing. (C) is fully compatible with the argument: people could be more likely to reuse plastic containers, while still throwing away an increasing amount of plastic.
d
An increasing proportion ██ ███ ██████ ██████ ███ █████ ████ ████ █████ ██████████ █████████ ████ ██ ██████ ██ ███ █████ █████████
In other words, other types of waste are decreasing, because they're being recycled instead. This opens up the possibility that the amount of plastic waste is decreasing, it's just decreasing slower than these other waste types. That's why it would be a greater percentage of the waste these companies manage.
e
While the percentage ██ ████████ █████ ███████ █████████ ██ ███████████ ███ █████ ██████ ██ ███████ █████ ████████████ ███ ████████ ██████████
How much plastic is being manufactured doesn't affect the argument, which is concerned with how much plastic is being thrown away. Since (E) doesn't tell us about how much of this plastic is thrown away, it doesn't weaken.
Even if we assume a one-to-one link between plastic manufactured and plastic thrown in the trash, (E) is still consistent with the argument. The conclusion is just that plastic waste isn't decreasing—that includes the possibility that it's staying the same.