Abstract
The purpose of this study was to clarify the characteristics of the 33 items designated for household wastes and to classify them according to consumer's assessment. We asked 210 middle aged housewives in their 40s and 50s in the area of Tokyo to fill out the questionnaire. The results were as follows : It became clear that they were not so conscious of causing damage to environments by disposing clothing and papers as household wastes. It also became clear that those, who were required to classify wastes into three categories for disposal, often had some feelings of uneasiness and guilt towards their way of disposal while having less consideration for safety measure for waste disposal in comparison to those, who were required to separate wastes into five categories at the time of disposal. Three factors were extracted as the results of factor analysis. They were “a degree of burden for waste exsistence, ” “a possibility of cascade use and a degree of impression for enviromental damage” and “a degree of easiness of waste disposal.” The 33 items for household wastes were characterized by these factors. It became clear that the 33 items could be classified into six groups by cluster analysis.
