Host: Japan Society of Material Cycles and Waste Management
Many municipalities in Japan have been collected PET bottle as recyclable waste since 1980’s. However, collected PET bottles always include other wastes and it prevents from efficient recycle of PET bottles. In order to promote PET bottle recycle, this study investigated the impact of trash bin design on PET bottle disposal, with firstly focusing on cap removal behavior. 10 categories of trash bin were designed. PET bottle collection experiments using designed trash bins were carried out since from April 2012 to May 2015. Experimental results indicate that combined specific design might have a preferable impact on cap removal behaviors. With respect to other materials incorporation, a trash bin designed as separated type and inside-visible collected many other materials. This might be contributed by not the design effect but accidental events. Except for this case, no clear difference among other trash bins was found. Paired t-test indicates that differences in all comparison were not regarded as significant with 5% of significance level. However, designs of each trash bin might influence each other. To conclude the effect of trash bin design on correct PET bottle disposal, continuing experiments and further discussion are necessary.
