Development of sustainable waste management in higher education institutions

Abstract

Despite the various initiatives being employed for fostering sustainability to globally achieve Agenda 2030, the understanding of the Higher Education Institutions (HEI) practices, discourse, and management remains limited. The present study identifies and quantifies the development of sustainable practices for HEI. It is an exploratory cross-sectional study conducted in 2014 at King Abdul Aziz University (KAU) to identify knowledge, attitudes, and behaviour concerning waste management and what could be done to develop sustainable practices at the campus. The study population comprised of academic and non-academic staff of KAU recruited through random sampling technique. The data was collected through two closed-ended questionnaires and analyzed using IBM Statistical Package of Social Sciences software (SPSS) version 20. The study's findings showed that waste management (WM) would improve KAU's reputation at local, national and international levels resulting in improved regulatory compliance. The results also reflected that environmental pollution caused by the emissions from the energy used and the materials consumed could considerably be reduced by the effective technical measures taken by the organization. The study concluded that sustainability in universities could be achieved when HEI works to inform citizens; there still is a long way to be at par with the European counterparts.