Question

Paper cannot be recycled if there are too many impurities present, like wrappers with food on them. The school’s recycling company requires the paper it picks up to be 98.5% clean. If the recycling company picked up 9,720 pounds of paper in all, what is the maximum weight in pounds of the impurities that could be on the paper?

Answer 1

145.8 pounds

Explanation:

So, if there is 9720 pounds total, and 98.5% of it must be pure paper, than 1 - .985 is how much can be impurities.

1-.985 = .015 or 1.5%

Now lets multiply .015 times 9720

.015(9720) = 145.8

The maximum weight of impurities is 145.8 pounds