GMAT Reading Comprehension Passage: Ecology(Plastic)
Although the wider US public hate to admit it, the ‘hippie’ culture eventually permeates the rural and urban Mindspace, be it opinion against the war, gay marriage or attitude towards mass incarceration. San Francisco led the Ban on plastic in 2007, but it might come as a surprise to learn that the decision, although made with good intention, had an adverse effect on climate change. This seems counterintuitive as the negative effects of single-use plastic on marine life have been heavily documented. The birds that washed away dead to the shores of Australia in 1999 with hundreds of small plastics in its stomach is etched in the minds of BBC News audience. But the invisible effects of air, water and land pollution from creating viable alternatives to plastic had far more consequence on the lives of Marine life.
According to Denmark’s Ministry of Environment and Food, the paper bags that is considered the most logical alternative to single-use plastic should be used at least 43 times to have the utility as the plastic in terms of environmental impact and the second most popular alternative material – cotton cloth, should be used for 22,000 times or more than 60 years to have the same impact as creating a plastic bag. The evidence from Austin, Texas, is a setback to the simplistic solutions that focus on materials instead of educating and changing the behavior of consumers.
In 2013, the city of Austin banned single-use plastic bags in retail outlets with an obvious benefit predicted for the environment and in switching consumer behavior towards alternative carrying bags. Since 1982, retail consumers were enthralled at the prospect of not carrying bags from home or transport cumbersome paper bags to the parking lot. The single-use plastic bags were cheaper to produce (1 cent) and faster to manufacture. The ‘throwaway’ element of plastic bags is not easy to change even if the bags changed to cotton or high-density plastic bags that are supposed to be used for at least 5 years. In 2-years, the city council observed that people were throwing away reusable bags at a similar rate as single-use plastic bags, primarily from habit, also from the low-cost of such bags and the unfamiliarity with cleaning stained carrying bags. With no cost deterrent and limited education campaigns on the reusability targets, bags were clogging the recycling machinery, further impacting the city’s goal of limiting climate change from increased carbon footprint.
Since the cities that banned plastic bags faced an exponential increase in litter, decision makers that are planning any such drastic ‘banning’ decision should also invest in technology that creates alternatives to plastic, enforce laws that penalize non-compliance, and broadcast education programs that teach the best practices of using reusable bags.
Q) Which region does the author refer to by ‘hippie culture’?
a) San Francisco
b) The UK
c) Australia
d) Denmark
e) Austin
Q) What is the author referring to with “the invisible effect of air, water and land pollution.”
a) The impact of pollution has not been documented
b) The pollution incidence that is not reported in news channels
c) The negative impact of pollution that is not immediate
d) The processes that have a far adverse effect than plastic on the environment
e) The pollution that doesn’t result in immediate death
Q) The attitude of the author towards ‘single-use’ plastics is
a) Ambiguous
b) Favor
c) Critical
d) Neutral
e) Accepting