Green Technologies and Environmental Management: a New Understanding and Approach to the Use of Agricultural Waste

Abstract

The waste from fruit and vegetable processing and also agricultural wastes contain valuable particles (antioxidants, dietary fibers, proteins, natural dyes, aromatics, adsorbent sites for removing toxins and contaminants) and, on the other hand, can be extracted, purified, and valorized in value-added products. This is the basis for regaining the considerable potential of food waste, using it as a source of many green products, and opening up the possibility of their extraction and purification. It turns out that fruits and vegetables and roots and tubers have the highest rate of food waste. The FAO announced that global quantitative loss and waste of root crops, fruit, and vegetables is 40–50% per annum. Disposal of such quantities of waste is not only a challenge for food processors but is also a matter of key importance at the international level due to environmental pollution and economics. This is the right time to invite some disciplines and encourage the various industries to utilize chemistry and chemical engineering in the worldwide demand for environmentally friendly chemical processes by the new approach and insight into food waste. Contrarily food and agriculture biotechnology with a focus on sustainable food production can use living organisms to make useful products, with production carried out using microorganisms and natural substances from organisms. Bio-technologies in food production obligated effectively through application in the reclamation of wasteland by the deployment of microorganisms and plants to degrade toxic compounds; genetic modification in food, non-food crops; weed and pest control methods; minimized the consumption of energy and water in production processes to result in improved value-added activities and thus enhanced productivity.