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.
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Native bacterial and fungal communities in pulp and paper sludge degraded biopolymers over a 10-week incubation, achieving measurable sludge solubilization and volume reduction.
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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.
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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.
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