Environmental Education and Waste Management Behavior Among Undergraduate Students of the University of Calabar, Nigeria

This study set out to examine the role Environmental Education can play in influencing Environmental Education student’s waste management behavior among undergraduate’s students of the University of Calabar. Three purposes were pursued, where three research questions and two null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The research design adopted is the survey inferential research design. 212 respondents were selected as sample from a population of 568 students registered in the department of Environmental Education (both NUC and CES streams). a structured questionnaire with the four point Likert scale modified response options. A total of 212 questionnaires were administered to the respondents in their various classes, before lectures and same were retrieved. Data generated from the field was coded and analyzed using simple percentage and Pearson Product Moment Correlation Analysis at0.05 significance level and at 210 degree of freedom. It was discovered that the waste management behavior of undergraduate students are negative, their waste disposal methods include ‘’throw away mentality’’, burning and dumping into gutter and drainages. The Correlation analyses show a positive significant relationship between Environmental Education and student’s waste management behavior among undergraduate students of the University of Calabar. The study also found that Environmental Education can influence the waste disposal methods adopted by undergraduate students of Environmental Education in the University of Calabar. It was concluded that Environmental Education has the magic wand that can influence positive environmental attitude, behavior and perception towards positive waste management. It was recommended among others that Environmental Education should be introduced into our school curriculums at all level. Keywords: Environmental Education, waste management behavior, waste disposal methods, waste management attitude and waste perception DOI: 10.7176/JEP/10-24-11 Publication date: August 31st 201