Microalgae: Nature’s Green System to Recycle Waste to Resource

Dairy wastewater management is a major concern for many milk-producing countries as it is a serious nuisance to the surroundings when disposed of untreated, increasing the organic load and foul smell. Microalgae remediation is an easy and cost-effective treatment to treat the effluent and simultaneously enhance a few agronomic traits. In this research, the phytoremediation technique was validated by treating dairy effluent using microalgal consortium and to study its impact on seed germination assay of Vigna mungo (Black gram). The results exhibited a significant increase in germination index, vigor index, and germination percentage when undiluted effluent was treated with microalgal consortium followed by other dilutions. Seedling growth was found maximum in 100% microalgal treated (TE100) undiluted effluent followed by 75% dilution (TE75), 50% dilution (TE50), 25% dilution (TE25), (TE0) treated effluent and compared with controls: water, effluent, fertilizer. So, we conclude that dairy effluent treated with suitable microalgae can be used directly for irrigation purposes to produce plants with high yield and significant biomass, indirectly making the industry a place of zero-waste discharge