The isolation and characterization of microorganisms involved in the degradation of sawdust waste in Rivers State was carried out. The sawdust waste samples were collected from various locations in Rivers State. The media used were nutrient agar for total aerobic plate count, Sabouraud dextrose agar for fungal count, MacConkey agar for coliform count and cellulolytic medium for cellulolytic count. The pour plate technique was employed. Colonial morphology, Gram staining and tests biochemical were used for the identification and characterization of the microorganisms. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to know the significant difference. The mean aerobic plate count ranged from 5.53 ± 0.87Log10cfu/g to 5.83 ± 0.10Log10cfu/g while the mean fungal count ranged from 5.29 ± 0.96Log10cfu/g to 5.92 ± 0.10Log10cfu/mL. The mean coliform count ranged from 5.53 ± 0.94Log10cfu/g to 5.76 ± 0.19Log10cfu/g while the cellulolytic count ranged from 4.51 ± 0.3Log10cfu/g to 4.85 ± 0.16Log10cfu/g. The bacterial genera isolated were Enterobacter species, Pseudomonas species, Micrococcus species, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella species, Esherichia coli and Cytophaga species, Cellulomonas species and Bacillus species. The fungi isolated were Mucor, Aspergillus species, Penicillum species, Geotrichum species and Keratinomyces species. It was observed that sawdust waste can be degraded by indigenous microbial population.
