世論 What Japan Thinks

With the busiest season for home printers coming up, namely the creation of New Year cards, it is quite timely that goo Research, as reported on by japan.internet.com, looked at printers at home.

Demographics

Between the 18th and 20th of November 2009 1,093 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.9% of the sample were male, 16.6% in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.6% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties, 15.4% in their fifties, and 12.1% aged sixty or older.

I’ve read stories than in the US ink jets are so cheap yet cartridges are quite expensive, people just throw away the whole printer when they run out.

I post all my empty cartridges into Yodobashi Camera’s recycle box. Checking my local rubbish collection rules, I see that the cartridges are burnables, so in Q3 are about one in five incorrectly disposing of their items? It also mentions in the notes column that if possible, one should use a recycle box at the shops.

Research results

First of all, 90.0% of the sample, or 984 people, had a printer at home for use with their home computer. They were asked the following.

Q1: When did you buy your newest printer? (Sample size=984)

2009	12.9%
2008	17.0%
2007	19.7%
2006	11.0%
2005	9.2%
2004	5.2%
2003	3.2%
2002 or earlier	7.8%
Don’t know	14.0%

Q2: Has your newest printer from Q1 ever broken down? (Sample size=984)

Yes	14.2%
No	82.4%
Don’t know	3.4%

I’m not really sure this is a very good question given the price of printers – for most low end printers it would probably cost about the same to buy new as to repair.

Next, 915 people, or 93.0% of the printer owners, had an inkjet printer. They were asked the following.

Q3: How do you dispose of your used ink cartridges? (Sample size=915)

	Votes	Percentage
Use a recycle box at shops	518	56.6%
Throw them away as burnable garbage	196	21.4%
Throw them away as non-burnable garbage	179	19.6%
Use a recycle box in post offices	17	1.9%
Use a recycle box in local government facilities	8	0.9%
Other	43	4.7%
Don’t know	70	7.7%