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The negative effect of solid waste on the environment is a topical issue effecting the global population. Waste paper is a major component of organic solid waste and cellulose a structural component of waste paper is a suitable biopolymer that could be resolved into glucose, a fermentable sugar. Also of concern to many sections of the farming community is the negative effect of garden snails on plants and fruits. When consumed by snails the cellulose section of plant materials can be hydrolysed by an enzyme system called cellulase into glucose which then is utilized as a resource of energy. Cellulase enzymes extracted from garden snails were incubated with seven different waste paper materials during ten successive incubating periods. Different sugar releasing patterns were constructed during the saccharification of the various paper materials indicating the different structural compositions of these paper materials. Foolscap paper showed the highest relative susceptibility for snail cellulase catalysed saccharification followed by brown envelope paper. The lowest amount of sugar was released during the degradation of newspaper and Pick n Pay advertising paper.

A novel functionalized micro-porous matrix was developed with well-controlled physicochemical proprieties such as pore size and surface chemistry. The matrix was used as a solid support in the growth of “ Streptomyces coelicolor ” A3(2) to enhance the production of antibiotics. The results shown support a higher production of prodigiosin and actinorhodin with overall production increase of 2–5 and 6–17, respectively, compared to conventional submerged liquid culture, offering a potential improvement in volumetric productivity. Scanning Electron Microscopy was used to evaluate pore size as well as bacterial adhesion, penetration, proliferation and migration within the micro-porous matrix.