Effect of waste management practices on the operational performance of hotels in Mombasa county, Kenya

Abstract

Waste management practices have emerged due to environment degradation and are adopted mainly to reduce negative impacts on environment. The focus of the study was therefore to examine the effect of waste management practices of hotel operational performance in Mombasa County, Kenya. The practices need resources for their implementation thus may result to possible impacts on the hotel operational performance. The objectives of study were: to investigate how waste management practices affect hotel operational performance and determine the implementation by hotels in Mombasa County. The study aimed to find out the existing waste management practices by hotels; how waste management practices affect hotel operational performance. The study employedcensus survey research design. The unit of analysis was hotels in Mombasa County, Kenya. The target population was hotels operations managersin the 43 hotels in the study area or their equivalent offices depending on the structure of the hotels. The data collection was done by use of questionnaires that were administered to hotels operations managers andcorroborated with observation checklists. Data was then analyzed by use of descriptive statistics and inferential such as mean, standard deviation and used frequency in the analysis. The study also noted that, the model administered had a moderate explanatory power of the effect of waste management on hotel operational performance. Based on the findings of the study, the researcher recommended thathotels should adopt waste management practices that includes waste reduction, reuse and recycling, waste collection and depositing, and waste composting in order to improve their operational performance. The researcher also recommended that hotels’ top management and government agencies should formulate waste management policies and guiding principles. These policies and guiding framework should be communicated to all stakeholders for their implementation. The researcher also recommended development and implementation of sensitization programme to all hotel employees on the need to employ proper waste management practices in their respective work stations.