Fill in the "Years since 1960" column for the data to the right. Make a scatter plot in Excel of the data using Years since 1960 and Millions of Tons Discarded (Title your graph and label your axes appropriately). How would you best describe the trend? Determine the best-fit regression equation for the graph and record it here. Explain why you chose this to be your best-fit regression equation. What is the slope of the model of best fit. Explain the meaning of the slope in the context of the data. How many millions of tons of plastic will be discarded in the year 2020, assuming a linear trend continues? (Show work in a near cell). Based on the linear regression model, in what year would you expect the plastic discarded to reach 50 million tons? (Show work in a near cell).
Plethora of Plastics Lab
Plastics are a rapidly growing segment of MSW (municipal solid waste). While plastics are found in all major MSW categories, the containers and packaging category (bags, sacks, and wraps, other packaging, PET bottles, jars and HDPE natural bottles, and other containers) has the most plastic tonnage at 13.9 million tons in 2011 (Figure 8 and Table 7).
Generation. Plastics made up an estimated 390,000 tons of MSW generation in 1960. The quantity has increased relatively steadily to 31.8 million tons in 2011 (Figure 9). As a percentage of MSW generation, plastics were less than one percent in 1960, increasing to 12.7 percent in 2011.
Recovery for Recycling. While overall recovery of plastics for recycling is relatively small – 2.7 million tons, or 8.3 percent of plastics generation in 2011 – recovery of some plastic containers is more significant.
Discards After Recovery. Discards of plastics in MSW after recovery were 29.2 million tons, or 17.9 percent of total MSW discards in 2011
United States Environmental Protection Agency. (May 2013). Municipal solid waste in the United States: 2011 facts and figures. (Office of Solid Waste Publication No. EPA530-R-13-001). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Retrieved from http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/nonhaz/municipal/pubs/MSWcharacterization_fnl_060713_2_rpt.pdf.
After reading this introduction, move on to Part 1
Part 1: Total Plastic Discarded Each Year
. Fill in the "Years since 1960" column for the data to the right.
- Make a
scatter plot in Excel of the data using Years since 1960 and Millions of Tons Discarded (Title your graph and label your axes appropriately). How would you best describe the trend? - Determine the best-fit regression equation for the graph and record it here. Explain why you chose this to be your best-fit regression equation.
- What is the slope of the model of best fit. Explain the meaning of the slope in the context of the data.
- How many millions of tons of plastic will be discarded in the year 2020, assuming a linear trend continues? (Show work in a near cell).
- Based on the linear regression model, in what year would you expect the plastic discarded to reach 50 million tons? (Show work in a near cell).
| Year | Years since 1960 | Millions of Tons Discarded |
| 1960 | 0.39 | |
| 1965 | 1.9 | |
| 1970 | 3.2 | |
| 1975 | 4.1 | |
| 1980 | 7 | |
| 1985 | 11 | |
| 1990 | 15.5 | |
| 1995 | 18.9 | |
| 1996 | 18 | |
| 1997 | 18.7 | |
| 1998 | 20.4 | |
| 1999 | 22.8 | |
| 2000 | 23.4 | |
| 2001 | 24 | |
| 2003 | 25.31 | |
| 2005 | 27.25 | |
| 2006 | 27.46 | |
| 2007 | 28.61 | |
| 2008 | 27.93 | |
| 2009 | 27.71 | |
| 2010 | 28.49 | |
| 2011 | 29.19 |
After you complete Part 1, go to Part 2.
Part 2: Cumulative Global Plastic Discarded
Data from https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-pollution
- Fill in the "Years since 1970" column for the data to the right.
- Make a scatter plot in Excel of the data using Years since 1970 and Total Waste in Millions of Tons (Title your graph and label your axes appropriately). How would you best describe the trend?
- Add an exponential regression model to the data. Write the equation below. Is it a good fit? Explain how you know.
- Based on the exponential model, what is the growth rate per year? Explain the meaning of the growth rate in the context of the data.
- Using the exponential model, make a prediction of how much plastic will be in landfills (and the ocean gyres) by
2025:
2050:
(Show calculations in a near cell)
- In what year does the model predict the total plastic waste to reach 100 billion tons? Show calculations in a near cell).
| Year | Years since 1970 | Total Waste in Millions of Tons |
| 1970 | 249 | |
| 1980 | 798 | |
| 1985 | 1200 | |
| 1990 | 1740 | |
| 1995 | 2440 | |
| 2000 | 3390 | |
| 2005 | 4600 | |
| 2010 | 6060 | |
| 2015 | 7820 |
After you complete Part 2, go to Reflections.
Reflection: Do you think recycling alone will solve this problem (See Q11 and Q12)? What are some of the challenges in recycling plastic that might hinder the world from recycling all plastic waste? Although it is challenging to recycle all plastic waste, what are some ways that you can reduce (or are already reducing) the amount of plastic you waste? Write your response in at least two paragraphs that contain 3-5 complete sentences each.
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Data from https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-pollution
- Fill in the "Years since 1970" column for the data to the right.
- Make a
scatter plot in Excel of the data using Years since 1970 and Total Waste in Millions of Tons (Title your graph and label your axes appropriately). How would you best describe the trend? - Add an exponential regression model to the data. Write the equation below. Is it a good fit? Explain how you know.
- Based on the exponential model, what is the growth rate per year? Explain the meaning of the growth rate in the context of the data.
- Using the exponential model, make a prediction of how much plastic will be in landfills (and the ocean gyres) by
2025:
2050:
(Show calculations in a near cell)
- In what year does the model predict the total plastic waste to reach 100 billion tons? Show calculations in a near cell).
| Year | Years since 1970 | Total Waste in Millions of Tons |
| 1970 | 249 | |
| 1980 | 798 | |
| 1985 | 1200 | |
| 1990 | 1740 | |
| 1995 | 2440 | |
| 2000 | 3390 | |
| 2005 | 4600 | |
| 2010 | 6060 | |
| 2015 | 7820 |
After you complete Part 2, go to Reflections.
Reflection: Do you think recycling alone will solve this problem (See Q11 and Q12)? What are some of the challenges in recycling plastic that might hinder the world from recycling all plastic waste? Although it is challenging to recycle all plastic waste, what are some ways that you can reduce (or are already reducing) the amount of plastic you waste? Write your response in at least two paragraphs that contain 3-5 complete sentences each.
by Bartleby Expert