article · Egyptian Journal of Soil Science
Agricultural wastes originate from crop production, harvesting, and agro-industrial processing involving commodities such as fruits, vegetables, grapes, bananas, olives, and milk. If mismanaged, open burning and landfill disposal cause soil degradation, air pollution, and groundwater contamination. Conversely, these residues can be transformed into valuable resources under bioeconomy frameworks using high technology and industrial innovation. Management options include composting, organic fertiliser production, biochar generation, environmental pollutant removal, and biofuel manufacturing. Furthermore, agro-wastes can serve as raw materials for biosynthesising nanoparticles and extracting bioactive compounds destined for functional food, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals. Incorporating nanotechnology provides novel routes to convert these residues into high-value products, though key questions remain concerning implementation within sustainable bioeconomic models.
Improper disposal of agricultural waste harms human health and degrades natural ecosystems through air pollution and contaminated groundwater. Transitioning from open dumping to high-technology recovery methods turns harmful residues into functional resources. This shift supports resource efficiency, strengthens sustainable consumption, and provides cleaner alternatives for soil improvement, energy generation, and environmental remediation.
The work points to potential applications across biofuels, organic fertilisers, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and functional food products, as well as nanoparticle biosynthesis. Target users include agricultural processors, industrial manufacturers, and environmental remediation operators seeking sustainable feedstocks. Because the concepts remain subject to open questions regarding bioeconomy integration, these nano-management approaches currently represent early-stage research rather than mature market-ready solutions.
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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.
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DOI: 10.21608/ejss.2020.46807.1397
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