Pelt Waste Degradation Using Active Microbial Consortia

In tanneries, environmental problems have special implications in terms of optimizing the consumption of used chemicals, applied technologies, the degree of recovery of useful substances from leather waste. Biodegradation is the process by which organic substances are broken down by microorganisms. From an ecological point of view, biodegradability assessments of new materials and compounds in the industry are essential to understand and quantify their impact on the environment. The sustainable development of the leather industry has focused on major environmental issues, such as clean production methods and waste management. Tanneries generate huge quantities of solid wastes as pelt waste. If these bio-waste materials are not utilized properly, they are potential source of pollution. Microbiological degradation of pelt waste is amongst the permanent concerns of leather processing units. The process may have the purpose of decomposing waste to exploit by-products as biocompost or to obtain proteases through a biotechnological process. These enzymes can be used after purification in various processes that have animal protein as a substrate. They can also be used in raw state for enzymatic hydrolysis. The paper aims at development of an experimental model on the bioenzymatic degradation process of protein waste from tanneries.