Development of Sustainable Strategies for Leather Waste Management through Bacterial Remediation

A new Bacillus species has been isolated and used for treating chrome leather wastes. The activity of Bacillus species is evaluated for the degradability of the Chrome Leather Waste (CLW). An initial CLW substrate concentration at 0.5 and 1%, along with the bacterial strain is studied against the control sample without bacterial strain. The higher proteolytic enzyme production and hydroxyproline release in the CLW containing medium confirms the degradation process, whereas it is significantly less in control samples. The degradation profile of CLW shows higher in 1% CLW as compared to 0.5% CLW. In 1% CLW, the protease activity of the isolated strain has been increased from 1.615 to 5.625 U/mL. In addition to protease activity, the isolated strain also expressed chromate reductase activity. Furthermore, FTIR, TGA, and SEM studies confirm the degradation of leather wastes.