Estimation of Lifetime Distributions and Waste Numbers of 23 Types of Electrical and Electronic Equipment

概要

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Based on a questionnaire survey related to equipment owned by households and enterprises, this study estimated the lifetime distributions of 23 types of electrical and electronic equipment. Using the lifetime distributions, the numbers of waste equipment were also estimated for FY 2003 to FY 2008. The average lifetimes of expensive and widely distributed equipment tended to be long, whereas those of equipment that was small or medium-sized and has been spreading over the last decade tended to be short. Parameter <I>b</I> of the lifetime distributions can be approximated as 2.4 for the various types of equipment that were investigated in this study, except for CRT monitors, which have been replaced by other equipment. The total waste number of 23 types of equipment in FY 2003 were estimated as about 130 million, of which waste cellular phones were 45 million. The numbers of some types of waste equipment such as VCRs and vacuum cleaners were estimated as equal to or greater than those of seven types of equipment that are now collected in Japan under the recycling law.