Eisenia Fetida: A Bioremedial Worm for Sanitary Napkins and Diapers

Abstract

Sanitary napkins and baby diapers are widely used around the world by menstruating women and babies. Once used, they are either dumped in landfills or incinerated which releases harmful gases such as carbon monoxide into the environment. Such material contains plastic, cotton, and synthetic substances which take hundreds of years to bio-degrade under normal conditions, hence polluting the earth's surface. The present study aims to use the earthworm species Eisenia fetida to fasten the process of biodegradation. Layers of fresh compost (which included waste materials, cow dung slurry, and water, were allowed to decompose for 15 days), cow dung, Eisenia fetida, fine compost, hay, used and unused sanitary napkins and diapers, and water were used to set up the experimental setting for degradation. The weights of the napkins and diapers initially and weekly were observed which ultimately decreased. Used diapers were set up for four to five weeks, and their weight decreased from 103g to 17.3g once every seven days, bacteria were isolated from vermicompost and the earthworms' gut by cultivating them on nutrient agar plates. Gram staining was used to further define the bacterial colonies. Gram-positive cocci, bacilli, Gram-negative rods, cocci, and bacilli containing spores and other variety in the bacterial population was seen. According to the results of the current study, vermiremediation is a very efficient, environmentally benign, and zero-waste approach for the disposal of sanitary napkins that can be used widely to reduce environmental contamination caused by them.