Aesthetics Application in Solid Waste Management as a Means of Optimising Environmental Sustainability in Urbanizing Third-World Environments

Abstract

The increasing urbanization of many third-world cities has led to increased generation of solid wastes which are often ill-managed and indiscriminately dumped, posing grave challenges to local environmental engineers and designers. This has consequently reduced the sustainability of many built and natural African environments. Therefore, this study was aimed at practically applying aesthetics in solid waste management as a means of optimizing sustainability in urbanizing West African environments. Adopting a descriptive approach supported with direct observation, with a total sample size of 610, respondents were purposively sampled in selected research sites in Nigeria. Following one hypothesis testing, the study showed a significant association between improved environmental affordance (derived from aesthetics) and the alleviation of negative user responses to the environment (such as indiscriminate dumping of solid wastes). The study also showed that more aesthetically negative environments offers more negative environmental affordance than positive environmental affordance. The results confirm that the majority of users of the environments (humans) exhibit more positive environmental behaviours when positive affordance is perceived from the environment. The study therefore established the significance of the practical application of aesthetics in the management of solid wastes in urbanizing third world environments.