WASTE RECYCLING PRACTICES, RESOURCE CONSERVATION, AND OPERATIONAL COST REDUCTION IN NIGERIAN PRINTING PRESS ORGANISATIONS: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM LAGOS STATE

Abstract

The generation of industrial wastes is increasingly becoming a problem from an environmental and economic perspective in the Global South, but the impact of the recycling practices of organisations on the performance of resource-poor small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in developing economies is still largely under-researched. This study examines the relationship between sustainable waste recycling practice (WRP) and two organisational performance outcomes (resource conservation (RC) and operational cost reduction (CR) in printing press organisations in Lagos State, Nigeria. A positivist cross-sectional survey design was used, with the Natural Resource-Based View (Hart, 1995) and institutional theory (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983) as the theoretical underpinning for this study, a structured questionnaire was administered to 188 supervisory and managerial employees who were purposively sampled from registered printing establishments in Shomolu and Ikeja Local Government Areas. Reliability assessment showed that the internal consistency of the five measurement scales was acceptable to good (Cronbach's α: .696 - .855). Descriptive findings revealed a bifurcated adoption pattern: basic paper recycling practices were broadly institutionalised (M range: 4.04–4.12), while technically advanced systems — solvent recovery, wastewater treatment, VOC minimisation, remained largely absent (M range: 2.14–2.23). Ordinary least squares regression analyses found that WRP did not significantly predict RC (β = .111, p = .128, R² = .012) or CR (β = .080, p = .278, R² = .006), retaining both null hypotheses. The findings challenge the universality of the circular economy win-win hypothesis under developing-economy institutional conditions, extend the Natural Resource-Based View by demonstrating that capability depth and institutional embeddedness, not mere adoption, determine performance returns, and provide original empirical documentation of the bifurcated recycling adoption pattern characteristic of Sub-Saharan African printing SMEs. Implications for theory, practice, and policy are systematically discussed.