Sustainable Waste Management: Awareness And Practices Among Classified Hotels In Bauchi State, Nigeria

ABSTRACT

Waste generation and unsustainable waste management practices are among the reasons for environmental degradation with all of its attendant negative implications. Hotels are responding to the global challenge of mitigating the effects of environmental degradation by innovatively moving away from the traditional methods of waste management such as wastefulness, waste land filling and waste burning to more sustainable methods such as waste avoidance, reduce, reuse, recycle and more recently, waste to energy techniques. Minimum study have been done on how environmental awareness relates with sustainable waste management practices among hotels in Bauchi State, Nigeria. Based on five relevant theories, the objectives of the study determined the levels of hotels operators‟ awareness of SWM methods, possible impacts of unmanaged waste, waste related environmental regulations and how these influence SWM practices among the hotels, and in addition, the mediating effect of perceived benefits of SWM on the relationship between awareness and practices of SWM. The study used cross-sectional descriptive survey design which involved both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The study area was Bauchi State and target population was made up of the 49 classified hotels from where 245 respondents were drawn. Purposive sampling was used to select the 158 managers and departmental heads from available 42 hotels. A structured questionnaire, interview schedule and observation checklist were used to collect data. Descriptive statistics was used to determine variable characteristics of the study while Pearson correlation was used to establish patterns of relationships and associations of the study variables. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine significant variable predictors and test hypotheses of the study. Results revealed: that hotels operators in Bauchi State are aware of SWM methods to a moderate extent with greater level of awareness existing among the higher classes of hotels; that hotels‟ levels of awareness does not correspond to the extent of practice which was to a small extent; that there is a significant relationship between awareness of possible impacts of waste and practices but no significant relationship between awareness of waste related environmental regulations and SWM practices. The Pearson correlation matrix results indicated: awareness of SWM (r=0.258, p=0.001), awareness of possible impacts of unmanaged waste (r=0.301, p=0.000) and awareness of waste related environmental regulations (r=0.123, p=0.125) collectively had positive significant relationship and association with SWM practices. The regression analysis coefficient of R=0.370 and adjusted squared coefficient of R2= 0.120 were established implying that the study variables explained 12.0% of the variations of SWM practices. Perceived benefits of SWM with 0.172 point has partial mediating effect on the relationship between awareness and practices of SWM among the hotels. The study revealed that awareness of SWM methods and awareness of possible impacts of unmanaged waste were the significant positive variable predictors of SWM practices among the hotels and concluded that an improvement in these two predictors will cause positive significant improvements in SWM practices. The study therefore, recommends for reinforcement in the levels of awareness of these significant variable predictors for improvement in SWM practices among classified hotels in Bauchi State, Nigeria. The study also recommended for further research on the factors which determine guests‟ environmental behaviors in Bauchi State in particular and in Nigeria in general.