Abstract

Increase in volume of waste generated by municipal residents, change in the quality of waste composition and the treatment and disposal method of waste collected are of major concern. The exploitation of the metabolic versatility of microorganisms is advantageous in biological waste treatment but the actual number of degraders of a target compound in a mixed culture may only represent 5-10% of the microbial community. To understand how microorganisms may be manipulated and exploited to reduce the frequency of such breakdowns and shorten start-up times of biological waste treatment, the important bacterial strains actively involved in the degradation of municipal solid waste were isolated, screened and enzyme assays were performed. The identified strains were then used for molecular studies by DNA isolation and 16S rRNA PCR amplification. The molecular characteristic study was done by sequence analysis and phylogenetic tree construction. It was concluded that Cellulomonas fimi, Bacillus thuringiensis, Paenibacillus favisporus, Lysinibacillus, Bacillus tequilenis, Geobacillus thermoleovorans, Micrococcus luteus, Bacillus subtillis, Bacillus halotolerans, Escherichia coli, Bacillus sp., Paenibacillus polymyxa, Bacillus cereus, Paenibacillus mucilaginosus, Ruminococcus champanellens, Serratia marcescens, Ruminococcus albus, Pseudomonas stutzeri are the most dominant species in municipal solid waste and proved effective in the degradation of the kitchen wastes. We therefore developed an efficient bacterial consortia that could concomitantly degrade different components of the organic wastes with the help of their enzymes in less span of time under natural conditions without producing any foul odour.