rubbish

[abdou-abdou]

Choose the correct answer:
Rubbish is a (renewable - nonrenewable) source of energy.

 

[Rover_KE]

I see you are a teacher. Have you encountered this question in your teaching materials?

 

[abdou-abdou]

I see you are a teacher. Have you encountered this question in your teaching materials?

No, I haven't .

 

[Rover_KE]

Then where did you find the question?

 

[abdou-abdou]

Then where did you find the question?

I didn't understand what you meant by encountering the question , but i did found it in my materials. I meant by saying "I haven't" that I haven't found the statement of being renewable or nonrenewable in the topic.

 

[Raymott]

Choose the correct answer:
Rubbish is a (renewable - nonrenewable) source of energy.

Do you know the meaning of 'rubbish' and 'source of energy'? If you do, you'd have to consider that neither of choices are right - on the grounds that if it's a source of energy of either kind, it's not rubbish.

 

[MikeNewYork]

Choose the correct answer:
Rubbish is a (renewable - nonrenewable) source of energy.

The normal types of "renewable" energy include wind, solar, waterfalls, dams, etc. Burning rubbish for energy, which is very popular in Norway, is considered by some to be a type of renewable energy, because there will be no end to rubbish. As a major oil producer, it is odd that Norway actually imports rubbish from other countries to produce "green" energy.

 

[Raymott]

Burning rubbish for energy, which is very popular in Norway, is considered by some to be a type of renewable energy, because there will be no end to rubbish

Isn't that a potential equivocation on 'rubbish'? That Norway uses energy-producing rubbish now doesn't mean that we'll never run out of energy-producing rubbish. Obviously, a definition of rubbish is needed. Whatever Norway imports isn't rubbish to them - using one definition of rubbish. But I take the point that one man's trash is another man's treasure (so we'll also have enough treasure).

 

[MikeNewYork]

Isn't that a potential equivocation on 'rubbish'? That Norway uses energy-producing rubbish now doesn't mean that we'll never run out of energy-producing rubbish. Obviously, a definition of rubbish is needed. Whatever Norway imports isn't rubbish to them - using one definition of rubbish. But I take the point that one man's trash is another man's treasure (so we'll also have enough treasure).

I think you've got it!

 

[Barb_D]

Municipal waste is a source of renewable energy. Is that better?

 

[MikeNewYork]

Municipal waste is a source of renewable energy. Is that better?

Evidently, the British are very sensitive about "rubbish".

 

[SoothingDave]

I think we can all agree that this isn't an English question.

 

[abdou-abdou]

I still haven't got a clue ! How should I answer the question for my students who are in the third year of GCSE (general certificate of secondary education ) in Egypt ? By the way , all my colleagues agree it's (nonrenewable) .

 

[emsr2d2]

I still haven't got a clue! How should I answer the question for my students who are in the third year of GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education ) in Egypt? By the way, all my colleagues agree it's (nonrenewable).

As an English teacher, it's important that your posts are correctly written. Please remember the rules of spacing around punctuation:

- We do not put a space before a comma, full stop, question mark or exclamation mark.
- We always put a space after a comma, full stop, question mark or exclamation mark.

If you and your colleagues all agree that it's non-renewable, then tell your students that that is, in your opinion, the correct answer. If you wish, you can tell them that there were differing opinions on this forum - however, we weren't arguing about the English, we were arguing about whether rubbish is renewable or not. I'm sure that by the third year of their GCSE they are probably aware that not all the questions they are going to face have a straight answer. Even tests written by native speakers can contain unfair questions which have no one single correct answer.

 

[SoothingDave]

I still haven't got a clue ! How should I answer the question for my students who are in the third year of GCSE (general certificate of secondary education ) in Egypt ? By the way , all my colleagues agree it's (nonrenewable) .

Now, I would say that we can always make more garbage. So it is renewable. Non-renewable is used to refer to the finite sources of energy like the oil in the ground.

We keep finding more oil and finding more and better ways to extract oil. But we can't make more of it.

We can make more garbage.

 

[emsr2d2]

Now, I would say that we can always make more garbage. So it is renewable. Non-renewable is used to refer to the finite sources of energy like the oil in the ground.

We keep finding more oil and finding more and better ways to extract oil. But we can't make more of it.

We can make more garbage.

Given that most countries are trying to cut their rubbish creation - more recycling, less packaging etc - I sincerely hope that one day we will find that it's actually quite hard to create rubbish.