PubMed · 2026-06-09
Researchers found that the natural microbial communities living inside pulp and paper mill sludge can break down the tough wood-derived fibers and polymers in that waste, reducing its volume over 10 weeks. This opens a path to using sludge's own microbes and enzymes to shrink industrial waste mountains instead of sending them to landfills.
Native bacterial and fungal communities in pulp and paper sludge degraded biopolymers over a 10-week incubation, achieving measurable sludge solubilization and volume reduction.
A previously validated enzyme cocktail showed no efficacy on the metal-rich sludge, likely due to metal-mediated enzyme inhibition, highlighting the need for native adapted enzymes.
Marker gene profiling identified diverse microbial communities that shifted at the genus level over time; the most abundant species were successfully enriched using pulp-derived carbon sources.