Librarians’ awareness and participation in solid waste management practices in selected academic libraries in Kwara State, Nigeria

Solid waste management (SWM) has been a growing and pressing issues in educational institutions, libraries, industries, businesses and different sectors that generates significant waste. Hence, this study focuses librarians’ awareness and participation in solid waste management in selected academic libraries in Kwara State. The study adopts cross-sectional research design. Questionnaire was adopted as data collection instrument. A total of eighty-five (85) respondents filled the questionnaire. The findings highlighted that the generated solid waste, which include paper waste from library routines, e-waste, plastic waste, broken furniture, used printer cartridges, and discarded cleaning materials. Results demonstrate that solid waste management practices include making use of library wastebins for waste disposal, making use of waste collection trucks for waste disposal, segregating waste by sorting material like plastics, separating papers and bottles before disposal, and incinerating. Findings showed that most librarians were aware of SWM practices such as the use of wastebins for waste disposal and waste collection trucks for waste disposal. Results demonstrated that the librarians always participate in the use of wastebins for waste disposal, use of waste collection trucks for waste disposal, and sorting of waste material before disposal. The findings revealed that insufficient wastebins, lack of recycling facilities, delayed waste collection, poor SWM policy implementation, and inadequate infrastructure to manage waste collection are challenges faced in managing solid waste. The study concludes that selected academic libraries in Kwara State generate various types of solid waste and also encountered pitfalls such as insufficient bins and inadequate infrastructure etc.