Agricultural Waste and its Nano-Management: Mini Review

Abstract

Agricultural wastes are considered residues resulted from the agricultural production and after harvesting fruit and vegetable and their processing, agro-industrial by/co-products from the grapes, banana, olives and milk processing. These wastes may represent a treasure when they are turning into valuable applications (i.e., composting, biochar, removing pollutants from the environment and organic fertilizers) or they may burn in open fields causing some environmental problems such as soil degradation and air pollution. The landfill disposal and open dumping of agro-wastes is a common practice in the developing countries generating huge amounts of ash, which may create serious health and environmental problems, primarily due to pollution of groundwater. Under the umbrella of the bioeconomy and based on industrial innovation and high technology, new and better approaches for the recovery of agricultural wastes have been developed. This has contributed to guaranteeing sustainable production and its consumption, resource efficiency, the conversation of these wastes into valuable products and the reduction of negative environmental impacts. The common management of Agro-wastes may include a lot of suggested uses such as production of biosynthesis of nanoparticles, biotechnological products, composting and biofuel production. A lot of bioactive compounds could be produced from the agro-wastes, which have many application possibilities such as functional food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic approaches. The nano-management of agro-wastes may include using of nanotechnology to convert the agro-wastes into a valuable product. This topic still has several open questions particularly under the sustainable and bioeconomy.