Which term describes the process used to reduce the quality of industrial waste?

• A. incineration
• B. recycling
• C. filtration
• D. treatment

Answer: (B)

Recycling is the process that can reduce the quality of industrial waste when the material is converted into a product of lower grade, a practice often called downcycling. It focuses on reusing materials to recover value and cut waste, even though the resulting product may be less pristine or useful than the original material. This contrasts with incineration, which mainly reduces waste volume and may recover energy; filtration, which removes solid contaminants to improve liquid quality; and treatment, which aims to reduce hazard and make waste safer without necessarily lowering its quality in the downcycled sense.