Managing Agricultural Waste as a Resource

Agricultural waste is a severe problem worldwide, particularly in countries where there are no large land reserves. Groundbreaking projects around the world implement the waste-to-resource concept, in which agricultural waste is transformed into valuable raw materials, clean energy, or new products. Our economic system is based on a linear and wasteful life cycle for products from “shelves to trash,” and the value of the product decreases throughout its life. In contrast, the circular-economy worldview focuses on understanding how waste can create capital instead of reducing it. From this perspective, existing waste accumulation should be thought of and treated in the same way as mining raw materials from the ground and moving from waste to resource. According to this approach, waste concentrations have a high economic value. Therefore, creating a market-based economic incentive, a partnership between landowners and entrepreneurs who will remove the waste at their expense in exchange for the construction of facilities to produce energy from renewable sources, will contribute to the rehabilitation of agricultural waste sites and reduce the need for enforcement. In this article, we will focus on using the circular economy in the agricultural sector, since the circular economy in agriculture is one of the most powerful tools for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, preventing soil and water pollution, and creating new sources of income from agricultural by-products.