I am not good at these kinds of problems, so if anyone could show me how to do this, it would be great.
Currently, there are about 270 million people in the U.S. The EPA set a goal of 35% of solid waste recylced by the year 2009. The estimate is that by then, the average person in the U.S. will generate about 4.3 pounds of solid waste daily. If that goal is met, how many pounds of solid waste will ne recycled in the year 2009?
Round your answer to the NEAREST BILLION of pounds.
(Talk about a distusting topic)
THANKS!
This problem almost does itself, disgusting or not. You won't get "good at these kinds of problems" unless you try.
Multiply the population by the waste produced per person. That, quite obviously, is the amount of garbage produced. Then take 35% of that as the amount that will be recycled if the goal is met. Then do the rounding off.
First, you need to multiply 270 by 4.3 to find the total number of pounds of waste generated.
270 million * 4.3 = 1161 million pounds
Next, multiply 1,161 million by 365 days.
1,161,000,000 * 365 = 423,765,000,000
Then multiply by 0.35.
423,765,000,000 * 35 = 148,317,750,000
That rounds to 148 billion pounds.
1161 million * 0.35 = 406.35 million pounds
Oops -- please ignore the last line. It's incorrect.
Your answer should be about 148 billion pounds.
Thank You both. I appreciate it. :)
You're very welcome.
To solve this problem, we need to follow these steps:
Step 1: Calculate the total amount of solid waste generated in the US in 2009.
To do this, we multiply the average daily solid waste per person (4.3 pounds) by the total population of the US in 2009 (270 million people).
Total solid waste generated = Average daily waste per person × Total population
Total solid waste generated = 4.3 pounds/person/day × 270,000,000 people
Step 2: Calculate the amount of solid waste that needs to be recycled.
According to the EPA goal, 35% of the solid waste needs to be recycled. We can find this by multiplying the total solid waste generated by 0.35.
Solid waste to be recycled = Total solid waste generated × 0.35
Step 3: Round the answer to the nearest billion pounds.
Since the question asks for the answer to be rounded to the nearest billion pounds, we round the calculated result to the nearest billion.
Now, let's calculate the answer:
Total solid waste generated = 4.3 pounds/person/day × 270,000,000 people
Total solid waste generated = 1,161,000,000 pounds/day
Solid waste to be recycled = 1,161,000,000 pounds/day × 0.35
Solid waste to be recycled = 406,350,000 pounds/day
Rounded to the nearest billion, the amount of solid waste to be recycled in 2009 is approximately 406 billion pounds.
Therefore, approximately 406 billion pounds of solid waste will be recycled in the year 2009 if the EPA goal of 35% solid waste recycling is met.