ABSTRACT

Microorganisms involved in the biodegradation of municipal solid waste (MSW) in Umudike dumps were isolated and characterized using standard microbiology technique, ten municipal solid waste dumpsites located within Umudike environs, Abia State, Nigeria were used for this study. The potential of individual microbial isolate to grow on the MSW was also studied using nutrient broth supplemented with mineral salt media. The study showed that different dumpsites had different temperature readings, bacterial and fungal load, caused by the volume of waste dumped and the habits of the inhabitants. The bacteria population isolated from the dumpsites included,Bacillus spp, Staphylococcus spp, E coli, salmonella spp. Aspergillus Flavus and Fusarum spp were the fungal species isolated from the dumpsites. The bacteria with the highest growth rate were S. aureus spp, E. coli and salmonella, while Aspergillus flavus recorded the highest growth rate for the fungi isolates. The fungi group proved to be better microbial degraders than the bacteria population as a percent weight loss of 1.23 ± 0.02 was achieved by Aspergillus Flavus respectively. This was in comparison to the bacteria group, which recorded 0.87 ± 0.03 percent weight loss by Bacillus spp. Increases in CO2 evolution was equally recorded by both the fungal and bacterial groups as well as increase in acidity. There was a positive correlation among CO2 evolution, weight loss and density for all the test organisms. However, there was no relationship between pH and CO2 evolution, weight loss and density.