Recycling Aluminum: Economic and Resource Factors

Steps:

• Identify recycling rationale: Reduces extraction costs and conserves finite resources.
• Evaluate statement 1: Aluminum's abundance in Earth's crust means extraction potential is high, not a recycling driver.
• Evaluate statement 2: High extraction costs from bauxite make recycling energy- and cost-efficient.
• Evaluate statement 3: Limited global bauxite reserves necessitate recycling to preserve supply.

Why B is correct:

• B selects statements 2 and 3, aligning with conservation principles that prioritize cost savings and finite resource management in material science.

Why the others are wrong:

• A includes irrelevant statement 1 on abundance.
• C omits key cost factor in statement 2.
• D adds extraneous statement 1.

Final answer: B