Nandy Gargi, Paul Pranesh, Karmakar Rupsha, Shee Arnab, Prabha Shaliny, Aditya Gautam
Department of Zoology, University of Calcutta, 35, Ballygunge Circular Road, Kolkata 700019, India.
Department of Environmental Science, Central University of South Bihar, Gaya, Bihar 824236, India.
ACS Omega. 2022 Aug 4;7(32):27927-27936. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.2c01653. eCollection 2022 Aug 16.
The different types of paper wastes constitute a major portion of municipal solid waste. The present study was aimed to justify the use of freshwater snails for the biological degradation of the paper waste and subsequent availability of cellulose from fecal matter. Three aquatic snails , , and were used to degrade newsprint, cardboard, and common writing paper as paper waste. The consumption of papers by the snail species was subjected to statistical analysis, and the results of Kruskal-Wallis test indicated a significant variation in the paper-specific consumption pattern ( = 181.762, = 2, <0.0001) and no variation in the species-specific pattern. Among the three types of paper used for the study, cardboard was consumed at the highest rate (4.655 ± 0.401 mg per day), and the per capita consumption remained highest for the snail (2.253 ± 0.273 mg per day). The microscopic images and SEM micrographs of the consumed paper revealed prominent grazing and scraping marks by the snails. The disintegration and relaxation of the papers after consumption indicated that they were on the pathway to degradation. The traditional way of degrading paper waste includes physical, chemical, or microbial treatment of paper pulp. This study represents a novel approach considering the freshwater snails as model organisms for the biodegradation process. Considerable amount of cellulose was present in the fecal samples, which can be extracted and purified for utilization as potent raw material.
不同类型的纸张废料占城市固体废物的很大一部分。本研究旨在证明利用淡水蜗牛对纸张废料进行生物降解以及随后从粪便中获取纤维素的可行性。使用三种水生蜗牛，即[蜗牛种类1]、[蜗牛种类2]和[蜗牛种类3]，对作为纸张废料的新闻纸、硬纸板和普通书写纸进行降解。对蜗牛种类对纸张的消耗量进行了统计分析，Kruskal-Wallis检验结果表明，特定纸张的消耗模式存在显著差异（H = 181.762，df = 2，p <0.0001），而特定物种的模式没有差异。在用于该研究的三种纸张类型中，硬纸板的消耗率最高（每天4.655±0.401毫克），并且蜗牛[蜗牛种类3]的人均消耗量仍然最高（每天2.253±0.273毫克）。消耗后的纸张的微观图像和扫描电子显微镜图像显示出蜗牛明显的啃食和刮擦痕迹。消耗后纸张的解体和松弛表明它们正处于降解过程中。传统的纸张废料降解方法包括对纸浆进行物理、化学或微生物处理。本研究提出了一种新颖的方法，即将淡水蜗牛作为生物降解过程的模式生物。粪便样本中存在大量纤维素，可以提取和纯化这些纤维素，用作有效的原材料。
