Prasenjit Debbarma – författare

This book, besides discussing challenges and opportunities, will reveal the microbe-metal interactions and strategies for e-waste remediation in different ecosystems.  It will unveil the recent biotechnological advancement and microbiological approach to sustainable biorecycling of e-waste such as bioleaching for heavy metal extraction, valorization of precious metal, biodegradation of e-plastic, the role of the diverse microbial community in e-waste remediation, genetically engineered microbes for e-waste management, the importance of microbial exopolysaccharides in metal biosorption, next-generation technologies, omics-based technologies etc. It also holds the promise to discuss the conservation, utilization and cataloging indigenous microbes in e-waste-polluted niches and promising hybrid technology for sustainable e-waste management.

Nevertheless, the continuous demand for new-generation gadgets and electronics set this high-tech evolution to a new frontier in the last few years. With this continuing trend of technological development, e-waste is expanding exponentially worldwide. In the year of 2019, the worldwide generation of e-waste was approximately 53.6 Mt, of which only about 17.4% of e-waste was collected and recycled, and the other 82.6% was not even documented. E-waste containsvarious heterogeneous waste complexes such as metals (60%), blends of many polymers (30%) and halogenated compounds, radioactive elements and other pollutants (10%), respectively. The sustainable, efficient, and economic management of e-waste is thus, a challenging task today and in the coming decades. Conventional techniques such as the use of chemicals, incineration and informal ways of e-waste dismantling trigger serious health risks and contamination to the human population and environment, respectively due to the liberation of toxic and hazardous substances from the waste. In this context, bio-candidates especially microorganisms could be sharp-edged biological recycling tools to manage e-waste sustainably. As microbes are omnipresent and diverse in their physiology and functional aspects, they offer a wide range of bioremediation.

Synthetic plastic offers a wide range of utilities because of its physico-chemical properties, thus the demand for its commercial availability and generation of waste is inevitable. Although the scientists have proved over the years that plastics can be efficiently biodegraded by different potential microorganisms, this sustainable green technology is still in the cocoon phase and overlooked by the industry and government as well. Therefore, this book will showcase the cutting-edge microbial tools to mitigate the plastic waste sustainably in consideration of latest technologies and recent strategic advancements besides discussing the global plastic production and their impacts on environment. It will also provide the present status and future perspectives of the environmental clean-up technologies. Moreover, it is an effort to ascertain the potential areas for large-scale biodegradation or pilot scale or start-up ventures in the field of plastic remediation strategy.