The reasoning demonstrated by the company’s claim in paragraph 3 is best categorized as a "half-truth." The claim suggests that the biodegradable plastic bags will break down completely in certain conditions, which may be misleading or not entirely accurate given the study's findings.
"Biodegradable Plastic Bags, Not So Biodegradable"
by Vicky Stein
The average person uses a typical plastic bag for as short a time as 12 minutes before throwing it away, never thinking of where it may end up.
Yet once consigned to a landfill, that standard grocery store tote takes hundreds or thousands of years to break down — much more than a human lifetime. Bags make up an alarming amount of the plastic found in whale stomachs or bird nests, and it’s no wonder — globally, we use between 1 and 5 trillion plastic bags each year.
Biodegradable plastic bags are marketed as more eco-friendly solutions, able to break down into harmless material more quickly than traditional plastics. One company claims their shopping bag “will degrade and biodegrade in a continuous, irreversible and unstoppable process” if it ends up as litter in the environment.
In a study published this week in Environmental Science and Technology, researchers put supposedly eco-friendly bags made from various organic and plastic materials and sourced from U.K. stores to the test. After three years buried in garden soil, submerged in ocean water, exposed to open light and air or stashed in a laboratory, none of the bags broke down completely in all the environments.
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Question
Use the article excerpt to answer the question.
What kind of reasoning is demonstrated by the company’s claim in paragraph 3?
(1 point)
Responses
half-truth
half-truth
gambler’s fallacy
gambler’s fallacy
fallacy
fallacy
bias
3 answers
what's the answer I'm confused
I apologize for any confusion. The best answer to the question about the company's claim in paragraph 3 is "half-truth." This is because the claim suggests that the biodegradable bags will degrade in a way that is more favorable than what the study actually found, which indicates that they do not break down completely in various environments.