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Bioremediation: Harnessing Natural Forces for Solid Waste Management

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Handbook of Solid Waste Management

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Abstract

Rapid growth of urbanization and industrialization plus the carefree and negligent approach of man toward the environment has incurred a negative effect on its overall quality and has led to an unprecedented burden of solid waste. Continuous and controlled accumulation of industrial and urban wastes into the environmental sink has posed a major global challenge of solid waste management that needs to be confronted with utmost prominence and diligence. Unregulated and improper disposal of solid waste poses a grave risk of environmental pollution. In this scenario, bioremediation is an invaluable toolbox for wider application in the realm of environment protection. Bioremediation is a natural biological mechanism of cycling wastes into another form that can be reused by other organisms. It offers a possibility to clean up the environment by exploiting the nutritional versatility of the microorganisms for biodegradation, detoxification, and removal of pollutants. It includes all three processes that take place in nature in order to biotransform an environment, already altered by contaminants, to its original status. Depending upon the degree of contamination, bioremediation strategies generally include bioattenuation, biostimulation, and bioaugmentation. The success of any of the strategies is ultimately dependent upon the presence of an appropriate enzyme system. Several advanced techniques applied for effective and easy remediation of waste material include bioventing, landforming, bioleaching, bioreactor, biocomposting, and phytoremediation. Logical application of bioremediation by harnessing the natural forces of biodegradation proves it to be an eco-friendly and cost-effective way to degrade, reduce, recycle, and thus manage the waste.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pharmacy, Rayat-Bahra Institute of Pharmacy, Hoshiarpur, Punjab, India

    Navdeep Kaur Sahota

  2. Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Sachdeva College of Pharmacy, Gharuan, Punjab, India

    Ramica Sharma

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  1. Navdeep Kaur Sahota
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  2. Ramica Sharma
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Research and Development Center, Teerthanker Mahaveer University, Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Chinnappan Baskar

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Center for Nanofibers and Nanotechnology, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Seeram Ramakrishna

  3. Chemistry and Bioprospecting Division, Forest Research Institute, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India

    Shikha Baskar

  4. Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, New Delhi, Delhi, India

    Rashmi Sharma

  5. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Center for Nanofibers and Nanotechnology, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Amutha Chinnappan

  6. Department of Basic Science, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Rashmi Sehrawat

Section Editor information

  1. Research and Development Center, Teerthanker Mahaveer University, Moradabad, India

    Chinnappan Baskar

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Sahota, N.K., Sharma, R. (2022). Bioremediation: Harnessing Natural Forces for Solid Waste Management. In: Baskar, C., Ramakrishna, S., Baskar, S., Sharma, R., Chinnappan, A., Sehrawat, R. (eds) Handbook of Solid Waste Management. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4230-2_107

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