Stakeholders’ Awar...

Artificial Intelligence (AI) holds significant potential to optimise processes such as waste collection, sorting, and recycling, ultimately reducing plastic pollution and environmental degradation; however, adoption is limited, especially among developing nations. The study examines various stakeholders' awareness and readiness towards the adoption of artificial intelligence platforms in plastic waste management in Nigerian cities. The study involves stakeholders in waste management and residents that were randomly selected from the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja and Lagos State, Nigeria. With 400 respondents, a questionnaire was adopted for data gathering while data analysis was carried out through descriptive statistics such as frequency count, percentage and mean. The finding revealed that 40.2% of the respondents are aware of AI for waste management while 59.8% of the respondents are not aware. The finding revealed that 64.3% of the respondents are willing to learn about AI solutions in waste management and 68.3% of the respondents support the integration of AI-driven waste management. The result showed that the cost of implementation (56.3%) and lack of technical expertise (34.7%) are the major barriers towards the adoption of AI platforms for waste management. The awareness and readiness to adopt AI-driven platforms were found to be generally low; however, there was notable enthusiasm to learn about AI applications, recognizing their potential benefits in waste sorting, tracking, and predictive analytics. There is a need for collaboration among stakeholders to drive innovation and investment in AI-based waste management solutions.