Challenges and Future Perspectives in Agriculture Waste Valorization: Sugarcane Trash as a Case Study

Agriculture is the activity that has allowed humanity to survive; since its discovery, it has been the basis for food, clothing, medicines, and the satisfaction of multiple needs. However, it generates large quantities of perishable wastes of highly heterogeneous composition that in most regions of the world do not receive physical, chemical, or biotechnological treatment for reuse, recycling, or valuation for new agribusinesses based on sustainable development by producing goods and bioproducts with the same or less quantity of biological and non-renewable raw materials, water, energy, and chemicals to address the use of agricultural biomass to obtain several bioproducts and applications with sustainable technologies within the cycle of the circular economy. The objective of this chapter was to evaluate alternatives of different technological levels for the most complex by-product of sugarcane sugar production to manage the trash due to its abundance, which is formed by leaves and tops and is burned during the harvesting of cane stalks, severely affecting the environment and populations. The bioproducts obtained are based on the framework of the circular bioeconomy and constitute alternatives to valorize and reduce the amount of trash with sustainable uses.