Q9 - Consumers are deeply concerned

[shirando21]

Can anyone explain why the answer is C?

[ManhattanPrepLSAT1]

This question asks us to explain why in spite of the fact that consumers are demanding recycled plastic, a very low percentage of plastic is actually recycled compared with glass.

Each of the answer choices should provide an explanation for why this might be the case except one, the correct answer. Answer choice (C) provides no explanation for why plastic is not recycled and is therefor the correct answer. We know that glass is being recycled so it should come from renewable sources, while plastic is not recycled so it should come from the depletion of oil reserves. But what this answer choice fails to address is "why?"

Incorrect Answers

(A) tells us it's an infrastructure issue. We have the factories set up to handle and recycle glass, but not plastic. So even though we want to recycle plastic, we're unable to.
(B) tells us that there's a difference between glass and plastic that makes recycling plastic more difficult.
(D) tells us that there's a difference between glass and plastic that makes recycling plastic more difficult.
(E) tells us that there's a difference between glass and plastic that makes recycling plastic more difficult.

[shirando21]

Thanks for the explaination.

But I don't have knowledge of plastic or glass recycling.

I take "the manufacture of new plastic depletes oil reserves" as not environmental friendly, and that explains why people don't recyle plastic as much as glass, of which the recycling uses renewable resources which would be more friendly to the environment. Where did I go wrong?

[shirando21]

another thought, is it because C acutally talks about making new plastic and new glass, which could be different than recycling, that made C irrelevant to this argument core?

[stacksdoe]

To piggy-back:
knowledge of plastic or glass recycling is irrelevant to reach the correct answer, although it may help better understanding the content.
I didn't notice this at first but all the correct answers not only give an explanation, they verbatimly use the term recycle, i.e. their focus is specific to recycling. In contrast, answer choice (C) is focused on "new" material. What I did notice is that if (C) is is true-which is how we need to look at each answer choice- then wouldn't this imply less quantity of plastic material in the market? But according to the argument, i.e., the stimulus, there seems to be a high quantity of plastic material, which is what the consumers are worried about. All in all, (C) just tells us about new products and nothing about the recycling aspect of them.