Isolation and Characterization of Bacteria Isolated from Municipal Solid Waste for Production of Industrial Enzymes and Waste Degradation

Waste generation and its control have taken an important role in our environment. With the doubling of population and changing lifestyle pattern of the inhabitants the quantity of municipal waste generated is increasing in an alarming rate. Most of this waste is subjected to dumping in a specified disposal yard. The greatest challenge to the environmentalists is the eco friendly management of this waste and application of microorganisms in this context has got an age over other available technologies. Organic waste is consumed by the bacteria, used as nutrients by the bacteria, and is no longer present to produce odors, sludge, pollution or unsightly mess. When bacteria consume waste, they convert the waste into safe by products and in due course of this conversion they actually produce several metabolites to break down the complex waste into simple compounds. Soil microorganisms are increasingly becoming an important source in the search for industrially important molecules [1]. Extent of microbial diversity in nature is still largely unknown, thus there might be many more useful products yet to be identified from soil microorganisms. In soil 80 to 99% of microorganisms remain unidentified whereas these biological communities are known to play a dominant role in maintaining a sustainable biosphere. Today both academic and industrial interest in soil bacteria (due to their several advantages over other microorganisms) is on the rise, in search of deriving these unique biologically active metabolites and novel commercially important products from them. Bacteria are present in diverse ecological habitats. They are considered highly valuable as they are used in fermentation processes, much as brewing, baking, cheese and butter manufacturing, chemical manufacturing such as ethanol, acetone, organic acid, enzymes, perfumes etc., microbial mining Abstract