Abstract

BIODEGRADATION OF ELECTRONIC WASTE USING BACTERIA

Subhashree Bhuyan, Jyotirmayee Kodukula, Swarnkumar B, Astha Sinha and Osborne W. J*,

Abstract

The dumping of e-waste like unused electronic gadgets, motherboards etc into the environmental reservoir cause many detrimental effects on the flora and fauna. The present study was carried out to determine the ability of bacteria isolate from waste dumping sites in the biodegradation of electronic waste. Enrichment was performed and 10- 5 and 10-6 was plated onto nutrient agar plates supplemented with 0.1g of e-waste. Effective isolate VITJS1 and VITJS2 was biochemically characterized and the isolates were found to be gram positive rods. Further the ability of the effective isolate to degrade various heavy metals found in e-waste was assessed separately using techniques like AAS. The culture was found to solubilize zinc metal powder effectively.

Keywords: e-waste, biodegradation, solubilization, AAS, Enrichment.