Of the following, which one is the best example of the use of "designed offal" (line 38) as it is defined in the pass...

Emil-Kunkin on April 15, 2022

Hi Remi,

This is a tough analogy question. We are asked to find a situation most analogous to the use of "designed offal" in line 38. My first step when seeing a question like this is to reread that part of the passage (if its not immediately fresh in my mind) in order to recall what designed offal is.

From the passage, it seems that designed offal is tailoring the production of waste in a process to feed that waste back into the same (or a closely related) process. There seem to be two major elements to designed offal that separate it from regular recycling. One is that it is intentional- rather than just using leftover materials this designs processes so that waste will be useful. Second, this appears to use the waste in the same or a closely related process. We can expect our correct answer to reflect these in some way. Finally, it is somewhat self-contained, with a manufacturer designing uses for their own waste.

A appears to just be recycling- the manufacturer is using waste from another manufacturer.
B does not appear to really be dealing with waste, as brass fixtures are likely somewhat valuable
C Appears to also be regular recycling of purchased waste
D looks promising. The company is using its own waste, and is feeding it back into its own closely related process. While we are not explicitly told the waste was designed to be useful, this matches our anticipation.
E Appears to also be regular recycling of purchased materials into unrelated processes.

So, we can choose D