（8.8）Argument11【超越自我小组】第四次作业

hermituforestUID: 2354296

TOPIC: ARGUMENT11 - The following appeared in a memo from the mayor of the town of West Egg.

"Two years ago, our consultants predicted that West Egg's landfill, which is used for garbage disposal, would be completely filled within five years. During the past two years, however, town residents have been recycling twice as much aluminum and paper as they did in previous years. Next month the amount of material recycled should further increase, since charges for garbage pickup will double. Furthermore, over ninety percent of the respondents to a recent survey said that they would do more recycling in the future. Because of our residents' strong commitment to recycling, the available space in our landfill should last for considerably longer than predicted."
WORDS: 392          TIME: 00:46:20          DATE: 2008-8-10 14:29:01

The speaker said the available space in our landfill should last for considerably longer than predicted because our residents' strong commitment to recycling. However, I think the evidences given by the speaker cannot show the strong commitment, so the longer space is still doubtable.

Common sense tells us aluminum and paper are all valuable material that can be sold to the salvage station for some money. The residents are more willing to recycling them maybe have nothing to do with their commitment but the economical value. If so, they cannot do more recycling because the aluminum and paper they use are limited and in the past they were impossible to abandon some valuable wastes. Also, we do not have the statistics about the recycling of unvaluable wastes. So, this evidence failed to convince us that the available space in out landfill should last for considerably longer than predicted.

The more charge for garbage proved the economical value rather than the commitment is the main reason for residents' recycling demands again. In the economical aspect, we must have the statistics to compare the recycling fee and the addition garbage fee. If the recycling fee is more than the garbage or even they are almost the same, we cannot assure that the available space in out landfill should last for considerably longer than predicted either.

Finally, the survey is questioned because a moral difficulty. As the earth's pollution is continuous increasing, the environmental protection became the belief of most people. However, there is a gap between people's belief and their actions. That is to say, they may not answer they won't do more recycling because of their belief, but actually did not do more recycling for convenience and economical value. If the speaker want the survey reflect more of their real actions, he may change the survey into more typical questions like "How did you deal with your battery without electricity?" or "How did you classify your litter and what will you do in the future?" In that way, they would face a specific question instead of a moral belief which could reflect the real action of the residents.

In conclusion, the reasons given by the speaker expressed the economical value rather than the commitment which leaded to the recycling addition in the past, which will lead the recycling still challenging in the future.