The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. Accordingly, there is nowadays the need to rethink about sustainable, eco-friendly and innovative approaches to valorize agrifood wastes in a context of bio-based circular economy. New products from the valorization of residual biomasses can offer a sustainable way to restore carbon soil sequestration, thereby reverting/containing the carbon footprint of agriculture and agritech sectors. Furthermore, the concept of process integration, which find the highest level of concretization in the concept of biorefinery, should be pursued to reduce the impact of biomass wastes and, at the same time, generate added value. Based on abovementioned concepts, some examples of successful products and highly-innovative suitable processes able to valorize them are depicted.
KEYWORDS:
Agrifood waste; Circular economy; Biorefinery; Biomass recycle; Wastewater; Innovative technology