Consumer consciousness and behavior for used NiCd batteries
The disposal ratio of targeted product items that had not been used for 1 year was calculated by combining the data on the time when the item was last used and the data on its method of disposal, as shown in Table 10. Concerning the disposal route, the results showed that only 10%–20% of targeted products were discarded as combustible waste, and thus most of them were disposed of as incombustible waste as shown in Table 10. Moreover, only 10%–20% of recharge- able batteries that were built into the products were detached when the targeted products were discarded, as shown in Table 11. Thus, we summarize the flow of used NiCd batteries from the questionnaire survey as shown in Fig. 6.
When persons who did not detach the battery when dis- carding a product were asked about the reason, more than 80% answered that they had never thought of detaching it. This suggests that the provision of information is necessary in order to improve the recovery percentage of recharge- able batteries in the future. Our next research article will include much increased sample numbers to ensure statisti- cal reliability.