Read the following passage.
A. Community composting programs collect food scraps and yard waste so that they become compost instead of being buried in a landfill. Food and other material that breaks down naturally makes up about 40 per cent of household waste in Canada. Keeping it out of landfills cuts emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, and reduces the polluted liquid that forms inside landfills. Programs gather the material in several ways, including curbside pickup, drop-off depots and community collection sites, and the finished compost returns organic matter to the soil.
B. Toronto's Green Bin program shows how collection works in a large city. It collects from about 460,000 houses and also serves most apartment and condo buildings, schools and City-owned buildings. Every kind of food waste is accepted, along with soiled paper towels, pet waste and diapers. Residents may line their kitchen containers with any plastic bag, such as a grocery or milk bag. They are asked to remove stickers, twist ties and elastic bands from produce, because too much plastic and other contaminants can lower the quality of the compost.
C. At a processing plant, machines first pull out plastic bags and other contaminants. The remaining material spends about two weeks in anaerobic digesters, where it is broken down into biogas and digester solids. Toronto is working to upgrade the biogas into renewable natural gas that can help power city vehicles. The solids are then mixed with yard waste and composted outdoors for several months, and the heat this produces destroys harmful bacteria. The finished compost is tested against Ontario standards, and some of it is given to residents for free at Community Environment Days.
D. Governments also use rules to keep organic waste out of landfills. Nova Scotia bans compostable organic material, including food waste, yard waste and soiled paper, from its disposal sites. In Halifax, businesses such as restaurants and apartment buildings must have sorting programs and containers for organic material. Statistics Canada's 2021 Households and the Environment Survey found that about 65 per cent of households composted kitchen waste. Only 49 per cent of households in apartments and flats did so, compared with 72 per cent in single-detached houses. Rates were highest in Prince Edward Island, at 96 per cent, and Nova Scotia, at 91 per cent.
E. Not given in any of the above paragraphs.
Decide which paragraph, A to D, has the information given in each statement below. Select E if the information is not given in any of the paragraphs.
AI explanationShows the answer. Tap to open.
Correct Answer: B
Why this is correct: Look at Paragraph B. Residents are asked to remove stickers, twist ties and elastic bands from produce. Labels on fruit are stickers, and fruit and vegetables are produce.
Passage Reference: They are asked to remove stickers, twist ties and elastic bands from produce, because too much plastic and other contaminants can lower the quality of the compost.
Tips: Ask what people are asked to do with fruit and vegetables before they put them out. Is peeling off labels part of it?
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Paragraph A explains why food scraps should stay out of landfills. It gives no instructions about fruit.
- C: Paragraph C says machines pull out plastic at the plant. That happens after collection, not at home before pickup.
- D: Paragraph D covers bans, sorting rules and survey results. It does not talk about stickers on fruit.
- E: The request to remove stickers from produce appears in Paragraph B, with the reason for it.
Correct Answer: C
Passage Reference: The solids are then mixed with yard waste and composted outdoors for several months, and the heat this produces destroys harmful bacteria.
Why this is correct: The clue is in Paragraph C. The solids are composted outdoors for several months. The heat this produces destroys harmful bacteria, and bacteria are germs.
Tips: Look for what kills dangerous germs. Check that it happens during the months of decay, and what causes it.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Paragraph A mentions methane and polluted liquid in landfills. It does not say heat kills anything.
- B: Paragraph B tells you what residents may put in the Green Bin. Heat and germs are not mentioned.
- D: Paragraph D is about rules and how many households compost. It says nothing about temperature.
- E: Paragraph C describes this step. The heat from outdoor composting destroys harmful bacteria.
Correct Answer: E
Passage Reference: Toronto's Green Bin program shows how collection works in a large city.
Why this is correct: Look at Paragraph B. It tells you who the Green Bin serves and what goes in it. It never says when the program began.
Tips: Check whether any paragraph gives a year for the Green Bin.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Paragraph A explains why composting matters. It gives no start date for any program.
- B: Paragraph B describes the Green Bin as it works now. The year it began is missing.
- C: Paragraph C follows the material through the plant. It says nothing about when the program started.
- D: Paragraph D covers rules and survey results. Toronto's start date is not given.
Correct Answer: D
Passage Reference: In Halifax, businesses such as restaurants and apartment buildings must have sorting programs and containers for organic material.
Why this is correct: Look at Paragraph D. In Halifax, businesses such as restaurants and apartment buildings must have sorting programs for organic material. Separating waste is the same as sorting it.
Tips: Look at what Halifax requires. Check who has to do it, and whether owners of large residential buildings are included.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Paragraph A describes how programs collect material in general. It does not name Halifax or any rule.
- B: Paragraph B also mentions apartment buildings, but only as places Toronto collects from. It does not say they must sort anything.
- C: Paragraph C describes how the material is processed. No city rule for businesses appears there.
- E: The Halifax sorting rule is stated in Paragraph D, including restaurants and apartment buildings.
Correct Answer: A
Passage Reference: Food and other material that breaks down naturally makes up about 40 per cent of household waste in Canada.
Why this is correct: How much of our rubbish can rot away? Paragraph A answers that. Material that breaks down naturally makes up about 40 per cent of household waste in Canada. Forty per cent is two fifths.
Tips: Paragraph D is full of percentages. Make sure your number describes the waste, not the households.
Why the other options are wrong:
- B: Paragraph B gives the number of houses in Toronto's program. It does not give a share of household waste.
- C: Paragraph C gives times, such as two weeks in the digesters. It gives no share of the waste stream.
- D: Paragraph D gives percentages too, but they show how many households compost. That is a different number.
- E: The share of household waste that breaks down naturally is given in Paragraph A. It is about 40 per cent.
Correct Answer: D
Passage Reference: Only 49 per cent of households in apartments and flats did so, compared with 72 per cent in single-detached houses.
Why this is correct: Paragraph D gives this number. Only 49 per cent of households in apartments and flats composted kitchen waste. That is fewer than half.
Tips: Paragraph B also mentions apartments. Look for a percentage of households.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: In Paragraph A, about 40 per cent of household waste breaks down naturally. That is not a composting rate for apartments.
- B: Paragraph B says Toronto collects from most apartment and condo buildings. It does not say how many of those households compost.
- C: Paragraph C follows the material through the plant. It has no figures about who composts.
- E: The 49 per cent figure for apartments and flats appears in Paragraph D, from the 2021 survey.
Correct Answer: B
Passage Reference: Residents may line their kitchen containers with any plastic bag, such as a grocery or milk bag.
Why this is correct: Look at Paragraph B. Residents may line their kitchen containers with any plastic bag, such as a grocery bag. A grocery bag is an ordinary shopping bag.
Tips: Two paragraphs mention plastic bags. Look for the one that speaks to residents.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Paragraph A lists ways to collect scraps, like curbside pickup. It says nothing about bags.
- C: Paragraph C mentions plastic bags too, but only that machines remove them at the plant. It does not say residents may use them.
- D: Paragraph D covers bans and sorting rules. It does not mention kitchen containers.
- E: Paragraph B tells residents they may line kitchen containers with any plastic bag.
Correct Answer: C
Passage Reference: Toronto is working to upgrade the biogas into renewable natural gas that can help power city vehicles.
Why this is correct: The clue is in Paragraph C. The digesters produce biogas. Toronto is working to turn it into renewable natural gas that can help power city vehicles.
Tips: Paragraph A mentions methane. Ask which paragraph turns a gas into something useful.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Paragraph A also mentions a gas, methane, from landfills. That gas is a problem, not a fuel for vehicles.
- B: Paragraph B tells residents what to put in the bin. It does not mention gas or vehicles.
- D: Paragraph D is about bans and survey results. It says nothing about fuel.
- E: The plan to use biogas for city vehicles is described in Paragraph C.
Correct Answer: E
Passage Reference: The finished compost is tested against Ontario standards, and some of it is given to residents for free at Community Environment Days.
Why this is correct: Look at Paragraph C. Some compost is given to residents for free at Community Environment Days. The paragraph does not say who hands it out.
Tips: Paragraph C tells you where the compost is given. Check if it says who gives it.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Paragraph A says finished compost returns organic matter to the soil. It does not mention events or who gives compost away.
- B: Paragraph B explains what residents put in the Green Bin. Nobody hands out compost there.
- C: Paragraph C does say residents can get free compost at Community Environment Days. It never names the people who give it out.
- D: Paragraph D covers rules and survey numbers. Volunteers are not mentioned.
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