Development of waste minimization awareness model for university campus

Abstract

All along waste problems and issues have been discussed. One of the main problem is the lack of waste minimization awareness among citizens. Solutions have been derived, either via technology or by changing human behaviour. Nevertheless the changes in human behaviour is the ultimate solution that should be sought after. In order to change human behaviour, waste minimization awareness should be instilled in the human well-being, which should start in the education environment such as university. However there is limited model available for creating and instilling awareness in people. Thus, this research was conducted to develop the Waste Minimization Awareness Model (WMAM) for university campus. The model will act as a guide and working flowchart for university’s administration, lecturers and facilities managers to raise waste minimization awareness and thus improve the waste management behaviour including reduce, reuse, recycle and compost among the universities’ students. The three objectives of this research were to identify the components of awareness, to identify the channels of communications and to develop a WMAM for university campus. Soft System Methodology (SSM) was used in this research as a research technique. It has five stages which includes literature review, elements identification, conceptual model development, verification and validation. Survey through questionnaires as a research method was adopted in this research. The respondents for this research were 405 undergraduate students from three public universities, including Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, University Malaya and Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia. The analysis found that six components of awareness: values, norms, knowledge, perceived behavioural control, motivation and skills needed to raise waste minimization awareness among the students. This research identified 49 channels of communication delivering waste minimization message. These findings from the analysis were used to develop the WMAM and verified through verification by expert.