Exploring managerial approaches to mitigating solid waste in hotels of Lagos, Nigeria.

Abstract

Due to a steady growth of tourism, hotels in Nigeria generate disproportionate amounts of solid waste. Little is however known about what approaches, if any, Nigerian hoteliers adopt for its mitigation. This study has set to establish the approaches to managing solid waste and evaluate their effectiveness in a sample of hotels in Lagos. To this end, it has applied the method of in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 17 hoteliers to reveal the role of organisational (managerial and staff attitudes, corporate policies), institutional (governmental policies) and consumption market related (consumer attitudes) factors in shaping the scope of solid waste mitigation. The interview results have demonstrated that Lagos hotels do very little to mitigate solid waste generation. This was attributed to the insufficient support received from the government, but also to the disinterest of hotel guests, managers and employees in environmental conservation. To improve the quality of solid waste management in Nigerian hotels, it is necessary to raise environmental commitment of managers and improve environmental awareness of guests and staff. Governmental involvement is required in the form of educating hotel guests and providing environmental training and ‘green’ incentives to hoteliers.