What is Putrefaction

This chapter describes how environmental pollution is the major problem associated with rapid industrialization, due to which the quantity of solid waste generated from the industries is increasing substantially. Solid wastes generated in leather industries are briefly classified into pre-tanned and post-tanned wastes. Although landfills, composting, anaerobic digestion and thermal incineration are available for disposal of these solid wastes, they do again pose severe environmental and financial burdens to the tanners. Microbe-mediated tannery solid waste management points to the recovery of value-added products from these wastes. Microbial valorization of tannery solid wastes for the production of saleable products would be a convincing, challenging and eco-friendly opening for its utilization when compared to that of chemical and thermal hydrolysis. Exploitation of traditional chemicals could be reduced and innovative products could be recovered, enabling sustainable solid waste management. This would ultimately alleviate the solid waste disposal problems and financial crisis faced by the tanners.