White-Rot Fungi, Fungi That Can Degrade the Color of Textile Waste
Lately, the trend of clothing is increasingly in demand by the public. This situation encourages the growth of the textile industry sector in Indonesia. Producers also felt positive impacts in line with the economic growth. On the other hand, the increase in the number of textile industries in Indonesia has caused its own problems, especially for environmental sustainability.
River as a source of human life
Since ancient times many people have depended on the river for their lives. This is proven by the large number of ancient human fossils found along rivers on the island of Java. Various human activities are highly dependent on rivers, for example meeting the needs for food, bathing, washing, irrigation, sources of livelihood and also means of transportation.
A clean and healthy river will certainly bring many benefits to people who live around it. The ecosystem in a healthy river will grow perfectly. Fish for example, if they are in a healthy river, of course they can reproduce optimally. This condition will bring prosperity to the surrounding community.
Contamination by textile wastewater
According to Dede Heri Yuli Yanto who is one of the researchers from the LIPI Biomaterial Research Center, nearly 200 thousand tons of dyes from textile waste are wasted into the environment every year. The dye wasted into the river comes from washing textile products. It is known that about 20% of the dyes used in the textile industry will dissolve with the washing of textile products.
Some people think that the problem of waste from the textile industry is a logical consequence of industrial growth. Of course this kind of thinking will not be a problem, if the amount of usable water available to support human life is in an infinite amount. However, this is not the case because the amount of water suitable for use is actually getting limited.
Recently, we often witnessed various color changes in river water around the textile industry. The color change that occurs is often accompanied by a strong odor. The increasing human need for clean water has made this pollution an increasingly serious problem and requires fast and precise handling.
Handling textile waste using conventional technology
So far, the textile industry players use several technologies to neutralize textile waste that will be disposed of into rivers. One way this is done is by making waste storage tanks. The textile washing water will be flown into the storage tanks and allowed to form a sediment.
The use of waste storage tanks can only reduce the sludge and solid waste that is attached to the washing water. According to Dede, this conventional technology is known not to be able to change the color of water in textile waste. The textile washing water discharged into the river is still colored and smells so it is a problem for the environment.
White-rot fungus (wrf) powder, textile waste solution
Since 2014 the LIPI Biomaterials Research Center together with Japan, Malaysia and Chulalongkorn University Thailand have conducted joint research that focuses on finding candidates for fungi capable of degrading dyes in textile waste. According to Dede, this is based on waste problems that have arisen in several cities which are centers of batik and the textile industry.
Several criteria have been established in the search for fungus candidates that have advantages in dealing with color waste in textiles. From the research, it was found that the wrf mushrooms were selected which were able to produce laccase enzymes in very high amounts. This laccase enzyme will solve the dye problem in textile waste.
Several studies that have been carried out on textile waste using wrf mushrooms show that this fungus can degrade textile waste or batik waste produced by the textile industry. This is because wrf mushrooms are able to degrade lignin components by using ligninolytic enzymes namely manganese peroxidase, lignin peroxidase and lacase.
The steps taken were sampling wrf mushrooms from nature and measuring laccase levels in the laboratory. The enzyme production will be carried out on wrf mushrooms which have high laccase levels. Usually within a month, an enzyme powder will be obtained which can be applied directly to textile waste.
According to Dede, the results obtained are quite encouraging because using the enzyme powder only takes 1 to 7 hours to degrade the color in textile waste. However, if you use wrf mushrooms directly, it takes a longer time, which is up to 3 days.