CORRESPONDENCE-ANALYSIS OF PAPER RECYCLING SOCIETY - CONSUMERS AND PAPER MAKERS IN JAPAN

Paper passes through many hands. In the present paper, key parts of th is cycle in Japan were examined, using questionnaire surveys of househ olds and paper makers. The study aimed to examine the paper makers' st rategy for paper production and their attitude to recycling, in compar ison with those of the consumers. The study especially focused on toil et paper because consumers have a lot of freedom in purchasing toilet paper. A total of 1242 consumers and 60 paper makers responded. The ma jor findings were as follows. First, we compared the criteria of consu mers for purchasing toilet paper with the conjectures of paper makers. Brand, advertisements and the appearance of shopping displays receive d 60% support from paper makers, but less than 12% of consumers select ed these criteria even if we exclude those who do not buy toilet paper or do not have any particular criteria. On the other hand, multiple p lies and benefit to the earth were selected by moderate numbers (betwe en 20 and 25%) of consumers, while only 16.77 and 5.69%, respectively of paper makers marked these criteria. Paper makers strongly believe t hat many retailers sell toilet paper as a loss-leader. By comparing th ose matters considered important for recycling by consumers with those considered important by makers, it was shown that many makers have a clear awareness of the particular problem, the lack of used paper cons umption, in the current paper recycling situation in Japan. (C) 1998 E lsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.