Bioremediation: An effective way of environmental sustainability

The quality of life depends greatly on the sustainability of quality environment. With the evergrowing
awareness of the pollution causing from all aspects of manufacturing processes, use of
petroleum, recalcitrant pesticides, and disposal of municipal and animal wastes etc., there is an
increase in political pressure to mitigate the problem all over the world including Malaysia. The
effects of environmental pollution and the methods of bioremediation of the contaminants have
been studied from the available literature on the subject. Different aspects of environmental
contamination with different organic compounds and toxic heavy metals and their general sources
have been pointed out. Bioremediation as a means of environmental sustainability along with its
mechanism, prospective pollution fighting organisms, and techniques and strategies has been
explained. The bioremediation activity in Malaysia is still in infancy stage. The area of priority
research with an emphasis on Malaysia have been identified as – detailed survey on the
contaminated sites and their sources all over the country, development of bio-techniques for
detection of environmental toxicity; search for new microorganism which can detoxify and destroy
different contaminants easily; development of novel biocatalyst which can function under extreme
conditions of acidity, salinity, temperature and pressure; creation of genetically engineered
microorganisms which can degrade the difficult-to-control pollutants; development of low-cost
and most effective in-situ and ex-situ bioremediation technologies, and the use of multiple
processes i.e. use of plants and microorganism together, and other methods such as land farming,
nutrient supplements etc. Multidisciplinary approach in cooperation and coordination with
engineering, microbiology, ecology, geology and chemistry should be followed for successful
bioremediation and thereby to sustain the environment of the globe.