Biotechnology for Zero Waste – Emerging Waste Management Techniques (Chaudhery Mustansar Hussain (editor) etc.)

Immobilized Enzymes for Bioconversion of Waste to Wealth

Angitha Balan, Vaisiri V. Murthy, and Ravi Kumar Kadeppagari

Centre for Incubation, Innovation, Research and Consultancy (CIIRC), Department of Food Technology, Jyothy

Institute of Technology, Tataguni, Off Kanakapura Main Road, Bangalore, 560082, India

3.1

Introduction

Waste can be defined as an unwanted material which has no value as it is viewed

as unusable material that can be disposed or discarded. At present, we survive

in the world where the exhaustion of resources is going beyond the control. The

production of diverse wastes can lead to severe pollution and environmental

degradation. Solid wastes are unwanted substances that originate from animal

and human activities. Solid wastes can be categorized into biodegradable and

non-biodegradable. Biodegradable wastes can be totally decayed by biological

processes in the presence or absence of oxygen (e.g. kitchen waste, agriculture

waste, animal dung, etc.). Non-biodegradable wastes are meant to be the waste

products which cannot be completely decomposed or decayed. They are mainly

of two types, recyclable and nonrecyclable. Recyclable can be reused or recovered

such as paper, plastic, cloth material, etc. Some of the nonrecyclable wastes are

carbon paper, thermo coal, etc., which does not have an economic value of recovery.

The environmental hazards caused due to increase of wastes can be reduced by

managing wastes appropriately. Different waste management technologies will

definitely favor the planet, and integrated approach in waste management that

include recycling, reuse, and recovery will facilitate the waste reduction.

Waste-to-wealth concept (Figure 3.1) literally means the transformation of waste

to a susceptible or desirable product. The idea of obtaining wealth from waste is

important to ensure that even the poorest countries will also be benefited from all

the waste management technologies. Waste management also led to a major sector

of occupation that provides livelihood to the vast majority in the growing population.

Waste management helps the society on several counts, as mainly it reduces the

pressure induced by the waste on the environment and converts it into wealth. It

helps to bring back the useless or discarded waste into valuable economic products.

It can impact the value of life, and concept of 5Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Recover,

and Refuse) is essential in an integrated approach of waste management.

Biotechnology for Zero Waste: Emerging Waste Management Techniques, First Edition.

Edited by Chaudhery Mustansar Hussain and Ravi Kumar Kadeppagari.