Sustainable Consumption Patterns, Non-Biodegradable Wastes Reduction and Environmental Protection in Kwara State, Nigeria

Poor consumption patterns aided by the need for packaging and storage of goods have contributed to the burden of non-biodegradable wastes. These patterns stand as major sources of toxic pollutants in the environment making environmental preservation highly compromised. In particular, inadequate management of non-biodegradable waste has been an overriding environmental problem in Kwara State, this is growing into an intractable environmental issue, therefore, there is necessity for an effective mitigation strategy. In view of this need, this study aims to promote sustainable consumption patterns to reduce non-biodegradable wastes and achieve environmental preservation in Kwara State. The objectives of the study were to: (i) assess the level of consumers’ willingness to adopt sustainable consumption patterns that support environmental protection; (ii) enumerate key strategies for reducing non-biodegradable wastes so as to promote environmental protection; (iii) examine consumers’ perception on the best practice in non-biodegradable wastes management; and (iv) investigate the dominant environmental threat to environmental protection framework in Kwara State. This descriptive study adopted a quantitative research design, with a purposive sampling of a hundred and twenty respondents; the descriptive analysis was based on a hundred and nine questionnaires that were retrieved. The findings of the study showed that: (i) the level of consumers’ willingness to employ sustainable consumption patterns that support environmental protection was 89%; (ii) the key strategies for reducing non-biodegradable wastes in order to promote environmental protection included ‘willingness to turn in used non-biodegradable materials for recycling’ (89%), ‘support for agencies that extract non-biodegradable materials from the society’ (83.5%), ‘ban on use of non-biodegradable materials if alternatives are available’ (71.6%), and ‘choice of re-usable bags over single-use nylon bags’ (69.1%); (iii) the consumers’ perception on the best practice in non-biodegradable wastes management was ‘recycling’ (80.7%); and (iv) the dominant environmental threat to environmental protection framework in Kwara State was ‘solid waste pollution’ (68.8%). The study concluded that consumer receptivity to sustainable consumption patterns was high; extraction and ban were among key strategies for non-biodegradable wastes reduction; recycling was considered as the best practice in non-biodegradable wastes management; and solid waste pollution stood as the leading environmental hazard in Kwara State. The study recommends that government functionaries, nongovernmental agencies, and relevant environmental protection stakeholders should provide current knowledge on sustainable consumption practices; ensure non-biodegradable wastes reduction framework is all-inclusive; make recycling process of non-biodegradable wastes operative; and completely eradicate solid waste pollution in Kwara State.