Wastage of Plastics: Study on the Caps of Shampoo-Containers

Abstract

Now, synthetic polymers make difficult problems for our environment. We examined the plastic caps of shampoo-containers comparing their weights and forms. 73 commercially available articles (56 of ordinary type and 17 of pump-type) were tested. Among the ordinary type, the cap-weights were distributed from 4.2g to 18.69. Generally, heavy caps had an appearent large space indifferent to their function and gave a preference to their designs. Although no marked difference in weight was found among the caps of pump-type, average weight (25.4g) was almost three-times that of the ordinary type and occupied around one-third of total volumes of the containers. Considering these data, we propose 1) the improvement of containers and suppression of excessive change of models for manufacturers,2)wise Selection for consumers, and 3)a facilitation of recycling of plastics by the governments concerned.