DEVELOPING A VISUAL COMMUNICATION TOOL FOR SUSTAINABLE WASTE DISPOSAL IN AKURE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The human environment is faced with many challenges, among which is improper disposal of municipal solid waste. Consequently, rather than adopting a proper method for disposing wastes, humans have taken to carelessly disposing waste in inappropriate places. Wastes are being dumped in water bodies, illegal dumpsites, drainages or by burning which the end result of such mismanagement is dangerous to human health and the environment. Despite various awareness raised towards promoting a sustainable environment, the environment is still being mismanaged (Adriana, 2009). It has therefore become important and necessary to educate residents on environmental issues and proffer means to positively influence human actions. Hence, the research sought to create visual communication tool in support of the awareness on the management of municipal solid waste within Akure with a view to promoting environmental sustainability. To establish this, survey and practice-led design were adopted, while data were collected using qualitative and quantitative approaches. The quantitative phase employed a structured questionnaire to sought information from 323 respondents while qualitative phase employed structured interview with 2 waste management personnel in Akure, Nigeria. A set of questionnaire was used to elicit information on the followings; demography of the residents, factors causing inappropriate disposal of waste, preferred medium of awareness creation, and evaluation of the environmental design. Findings of this study revealed institutional negligence, accessibility and infrastructural deficiencies, inadequate resources and manpower, schedule irregularities, ignorance and illiteracy, service anomalies and behavioural cankerworm as factors that were responsible for indiscriminate disposal of waste. The initial findings, that is, the quantitative and qualitative phase resulted to the design and production of comic-style illustration that can be used for an effective communication and promotion of environmental awareness in the municipal. The close-to-reality illustrations were created to reveal human actions contributing to environmental degradation by endangering sustainability, its consequences and activities to curb the act. The research revealed the design of comic-style illustration was effective for awareness creation.