Eco-MCPS: A newly developed web-based database for eco-materials in Japan

Abstract

A novel Web-based database on eco-materials was constructed by the database subcommittee of Ecomaterial Forum. Enquiries were made to companies to obtain about 800 product data, and the data were organized into the Web-based database- "Eco-M·C·P·S" (more simply denoted as Eco-MCPS), which was implemented by PostgreSQL (RDBS) and PHP (server side script). Eco-materials and related products can be searched by the product category or the environmental category. Some products are indexed by key categories, and are related with each other by the key, which makes the products comparable or associated with other products. The products or companies can be searched in the search page by typing in case-sensitive free keywords, such as "RoHS", and the search can be refined by adding product categories or environmental categories. Searches can be made for eco-labeled products. Association rules which may reflect social interest level on ecomaterials were found by data mining the access log data of the database. © 2007 The Japan Institute of Metals.