Sustainable Packaging Solutions from Agri-food Waste: An Overview

More than one-third of the food produced in the world is discarded as waste. This waste appears especially as hygienic and quality discards, not allowing them to be incorporated into the food market. However, the waste caused by the inedible parts of food (skins, bones, seeds, etc.) also adds to these discards. This waste generates a great economic and environmental impact because it is not used in other applications and is being removed in landfills (on many occasions uncontrolled). Different alternatives have been evaluated for the use of this waste, such as incineration or composting. However, the use of its components is the most beneficial in the current context of the circular economy. This waste has a large number of biopolymers, which are a great alternative to substitute the synthetic polymers that are currently used. For this reason, many studies are evaluating the potential of this waste as sustainable packaging to value it in different industries. However, the great variety of properties and manufacturing techniques that these valuated materials can have makes it essential to compile them in order to choose the most suitable ones in each case. For this reason, the objective of this chapter is the compilation of the different agricultural waste evaluated in recent years (2019–2023) to increase its visibility and incorporation into the current market.