Agricultural Waste Management for Climate Change Mitigation: Some Implications to Egypt

Abstract

Human activity is increasing the concentration of atmospheric greenhouse gases (GHGs) such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O). As a result, pollution and a significant warming of the earth’s surface are happening and thus expected climate changes and its adverse impacts on the environment. Due to increasing population growth during the few last decades, agriculture wastes were increasingly generated day by day. Most of these wastes are misused either by burning or disposing with unsuitable methods. This not only consumes potential valuable resources but also increases the GHGs emission in the earth’s atmosphere. Therefore, utilizing and managing these wastes with eco-friendly and sustainable manner will lead to mitigate the emission of GHGs and climate change impacts. There are traditional and modern methods for utilizing agricultural wastes for these purposes. These methods utilize agricultural wastes in animal feeding, composting, bioenergy resources, bioplastic and building material base. Therefore, exploring new and alternative methods for utilizing these potentially valuable resources and changing people behavior toward this is very necessary.

Full text

Chapter 8
Agricultural Waste Management
for Climate Change Mitigation: Some
Implications to Egypt
Heba Elbasiouny, Bodor A. Elbanna, Esraa Al-Najoli, Amal Alsherief,
Shimaa Negm, Esraa Abou El-Nour, Aya Nofal and Sara Sharabash
Abstract Human activity is increasing the concentration of atmospheric greenhouse
gases (GHGs) such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide
(N2O). As a result, pollution and a significant warming of the earth’s surface are hap-
pening and thus expected climate changes and its adverse impacts on the environment.
Due to increasing population growth during the few last decades, agriculture wastes
were increasingly generated day by day. Most of these wastes are misused either
by burning or disposing with unsuitable methods. This not only consumes potential
valuable resources but also increases the GHGs emission in the earth’s atmosphere.
Therefore, utilizing and managing these wastes with eco-friendly and sustainable
manner will lead to mitigate the emission of GHGs and climate change impacts.
There are traditional and modern methods for utilizing agricultural wastes for these
purposes. These methods utilize agricultural wastes in animal feeding, compost-
ing, bioenergy resources, bioplastic and building material base. Therefore, exploring
new and alternative methods for utilizing these potentially valuable resources and
changing people behavior toward this is very necessary.
Keywords Agriculture waste ·Climate change ·Mitigation ·Greenhouse
emissions ·Environment
8.1 Introduction
Human activity is increasing the concentration of atmospheric greenhouse gases
(GHGs). As a result, significant warming of the earth’s surface is expected in addition
to other associated climate changes within the next few decades. The GHGs are
causing the largest contribution to global warming including carbon dioxide (CO2),
methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O). All three gases are produced through the
H. Elbasiouny (B)·B. A. Elbanna ·E. Al-Najoli ·A. Alsherief ·S. Negm ·E. Abou El-Nour ·
A. Nofal ·S. Sharabash
Department of Environmental and Biological Sciences, Home Economics Faculty, Al-Azhar
University, Nawag, Tanta 31732, Egypt
e-mail: Hebaelbasiouny@azhar.edu.eg;Hebayehia79@hotmail.com
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
A. M. Negm and N. Shareef (eds.), Waste Management in MENA Regions,
Springer Water, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18350- 9_8
149

150 H. Elbasiouny et al.
management and disposal of wastes [1]. Therefore, environmental pollutions and
energy saving are among the greatest challenges facing the humankind in the current
century [2].
Waste generation is rising day by day due to the population growth which directly
influences the environment and economy [3]. Recently, agricultural wastes have
become a significant source of pollution. The random burning of wastes such as
straw and livestock dung in the agricultural country has led to series of environ-
mental problems [4]. The increasing quantity of waste and its inappropriate removal
especially in developing countries have always been pressing the safety of envi-
ronment’s population health, and alongside, amplifying the contributing of these
countries in the global GHGs emission [5].
As indicated by the research, all agricultural wastes have incredible potential ben-
efits. Thus, the effective transformation of these wastes, recycling and utilization,
is very significant in the control of environmental pollution [4] and GHGs emis-
sion. Therefore, finding ways to adapt to climate change and its countless potential
impacts is one of the greatest challenges of climate change [6]. Therefore, utiliz-
ing all the resources in the agricultural sector is needed to maximize the yields of
agricultural production. However, intensifying the usage of production elements for
vertical and horizontal expansion is resulting in an increase of the annual amount of
agricultural wastes which accumulate without suitable managing. Therefore, there
is an urgent need for activating the most suitable methods for transforming such
agricultural wastes into economic and valuable materials. These materials can add
increasing value to agricultural crops and productivity, energy saving, enhancing
the environmental quality, and increasing the rates of self-sufficiency [7]. He et al.
[8] also affirmed that agricultural wastes have great ecological service and economic
value, and this could not only relieve the ecological, environmental pollution but also
would decline the agricultural production demand for limited resources. Attitudes
must, consequently, be changed from believing crop residues as undesired wastes to
considering them as an integral part of agricultural production [9].
8.2 Agricultural Waste Definition
Agricultural wastes are defined by many researchers as follows: “the outcome of
agricultural production following the different harvesting activities” Abou Hussein
and Sawan [9], as well, Sarnklong et al. [10] referred to the crop’s straw as the
residues after agricultural crop harvest and emphasizes that it is the main by-product
of agriculture production. It also defined as “any substance or object which the holder
discards or intends or is required to discard” [9,11]and also referred residues as
wastes and reported that is depending on whether they have or do not have a use.
They also mentioned that residues are often referred to as “co-products.” Zaman and
Lehmann [12] referred the solid waste as “any trash, garbage, refuse or abandoned
materials which have ‘no economic value’ or functions for anybody.” As well, Zaman
and Lehmann [13] pointed to wastes generally as “the symbols of the inefficiency

8 Agricultural Waste Management for Climate Change Mitigation … 151
of any modern society and a representation of misallocated resources.” Singh et al.
[14] stated that “the word ‘Waste’ normally emphasis something around us which
should be recycled, reused, reduced or even eliminated, if possible.”
8.3 Obstacles of Utilizing of Agricultural Waste
There are many obstacles facing the utilization of agricultural wastes, for example,
rice straw, as low-cost biomass, is difficult to be collected because of high costs and
logistical costs since “most of the rice straw is produced by smallholder farmers.”
Wheat straw is collected and used for many purposes in many countries. However, the
cost for wheat straw depends largely on local circumstances. In some regions, a lot
of straw is collected for certain purposes like animal bedding. In others, wheat straw
is not utilized [15]. Wang et al. [4] mentioned that there were problems facing the
utilization processes of agricultural wastes such as the large quantity and unknown
amount of these wastes. The utilizing and disposing problems focus on the agricul-
tural wastes include backwardness of techniques, gaps of agricultural automation,
deferred policies, and social service systems [4].
8.4 Agricultural Waste Sources
–Crop residue (agricultural wastes): wastes that resulted after harvesting rice
straw, corn leaves, cobs, cassava stem, cane trash, peanut shell, coconut shell,
leaves, etc. Rice, corn, wheat/barley, cotton, and sugarcane are the five crops with
the highest amount of waste.
–Agro-industrial residues: that is, wastes that are resulted from processing on rice
husks biogases, peanut shells, cassava peels, coffee husks.
–Hazardous wastes: such as excess pesticides and fertilizers, and
–Animal wastes:[9,16].
8.5 Agricultural Waste Composition
Agricultural residues consist mainly of cellulose and lignin, which jointly repre-
sents 85–90% of the dry matter content; the remaining 15–10% includes simple
sugars, starch, fat, wax, ash, essential oils, gums, tannins, pectin, and among other
substances. Most of cellulose materials in such residues are known as “holocellu-
lose” which includes three fractions of cellulose (i.e., α-cellulose, ß-cellulose, and
γ-cellulose); the combination of ß-cellulose and γ-cellulose is known as hemicellu-
lose [17]. Elfeki and Tkadlec [18] added that these wastes are characterized as coarse
plant by-products and “big size, chemically low in protein and fat contents.”

152 H. Elbasiouny et al.
8.6 Wastes and Climate Change
Recently, agricultural wastes have considered an important pollution source [4].
Climate change is considered as a major global challenge that has motivated the
international community to apply mitigation strategies aiming at limiting the aver-
age rising of global temperature [19]. Biomass burning has a significant impact on
the chemistry of global atmosphere because it provides large source of CO2,N
2O,
and hydrocarbons [20]. In this context, Viana et al. [21] also explained that globally,
biomass burning represents an important source of atmospheric GHGs and aerosols,
with a great interannual variability. However, biomass burning emissions cause pos-
itive and negative effects on the climate. For example, smoke and aerosol particles
have a cooling effect in the atmosphere because they directly scatter sunlight or
reflect it to space. However, black carbon particles have a warming effect because
of absorption of incoming radiation. Smoke particles are a main source of cloud
condensation nucleus. Clouds, which contain a higher number of smaller droplets,
reflect more solar radiation into space, and as the clouds are less likely to produce
rain, cloud coverage may also increase. However, smoke emissions do not only have
a cooling effect on the atmosphere but a warming one as well. Some of the gases
emitted by biomass burning, such as CO2and CH4, are GHGs and thus share in the
greenhouse effect that heats the atmosphere through absorbing thermal radiation.
Further than these direct influences, indirect and semi-direct influences of biomass
burning emissions have also been detected. Aerosols modify the microphysical and
thus consequently the radiative characteristics and amount of clouds (i.e., the large
number of cloud condensation nucleus). This will lead to increase in cloud coverage
or to decrease it because of the increase in temperature due to the absorption of
incoming radiation by elemental carbon particles [21].
Recently, many of agriculture wastes have been produced yearly around the world.
Agricultural wastes annually increased at an average of 5–10%. The unreasonable
utilization would cause many problems such as soil and air, for example, the burning
of straw and manure will generate a lot of smoke and dust, harmful gases, seri-
ously leading to air pollution. As well, animal manure contains many parasite eggs,
pathogens, heavy metals, and so on. Furthermore, A part of these agricultural residues
has been directly discharged into the water bodies, causing serious contamination of
the aquatic environment [4]. In addition, Song et al. [22] added also confirmed that
food and agricultural systems heavily rely on fossil fuel energy. Petroleum is almost
used in every stage of food production, from fertilizers production to mechanized
planting, irrigation, harvesting, cooling, and transportation. Furthermore, discarding
food in a landfill makes it decompose anaerobically and yield CH4emissions.
People generate approximately 150 billion metric tons of agricultural biomass
wastes yearly. These wastes can use as a major source of energy or raw materials
[23]. The occurrence of agricultural wastes differs from place to place. For instance,
in Egypt, 97% of its area is a desert, and less than 4% of the land is suitable for agricul-
ture. The agricultural activities result in economic part of the crop (i.e., the yield) and
less important part (i.e., agricultural waste). With the introducing of technology in the

8 Agricultural Waste Management for Climate Change Mitigation … 153
agricultural process, wastes have become a burden due to the occasioned destruction
and environmental pollution. In addition, statistics point out that agricultural wastes
reach about 30 million tons nationally. The type and quantity of agricultural wastes
in Egypt change from village to other and from year to other because of the farmers
always desire to cultivate the most profitable crops that suited to both of land and
environment [9].
The increased generation of crop straw residues has a wide range of adverse
effects on human health, energy, and environment safety [24]. Most of the developing
countries are seeking practical solutions, either legal or illegal. However, it was shown
from the literature that the selection of the waste treatment technologies is based on
their cost-effectiveness and contributions for meeting some locally, regionally, or
nationally imposed purposes, while the criterion of mitigating climate change has
not been considered. For example, in a region of Malaysia, the optimal scenario
for managing municipal solid waste would be able to accomplish the renewable
energy target and, recycling target and boost composting as an alternative for waste
reduction [5]. As well, Yevich and Logan [20] reported that there are two important
components of biomass burning: (1) the incineration of agricultural waste, wood and
charcoal as household fuel, and (2) the combustion of crop wastes in open fields. They
also confirmed that as the populations of developing countries continue to rise, the
contributions of these biomass burnings increase. They also added that a quantitative
description of the spatial distribution of such burning is needed to assess the impact
of this burning on the budgets of trace gases.
Using of rice straw may offset carbon, N2O, and fine dust emissions from field
burning as a public disposal method for rice and wheat straws. As well, it retains the
minerals in the ash. Legislation to forbid field burning results in disposal problems
in many countries. Compared to other types of straw (e.g., wheat straw, corn stover),
rice straw management can be distinguished by its most common disposal technique:
open field burning. Field burning of straw is often the most cost-effective technique
for rice farmers to quickly dispose of straw. While some nutrients (e.g., potassium)
are largely contained in the field, a lot of C and N are released and not going to field.
Although there are no official information, estimates indicate that farmers burnt about
80% of rice straw in certain regions. Moreover, there are also differences in straw
burning methods (e.g., pile burning, or straw burning that is evenly spread over the
field) [15].
Hasty actions and unsound decisions of the future use of residues for bioenergy
production and GHGs emission reduction might have considerable negative socioe-
conomic and environmental impacts. However, primary crop residues have many
significant ecosystem functions and provide a potential wealth of ecosystem ser-
vices to humankind as well to the environment. This go far beyond the provision of
bioenergy and C storage for the reducing GHGs emission. Regulating services are
provided when agricultural wastes are kept on the soil, contributing to agricultural
productivity, to adaptation to climate change variability and mitigation. More specif-
ically, their services present in minimizing the soil erosion, reducing the evaporation
of soil water, helping to increase the infiltration of rainwater and capture the precip-
itation from snow, delivering essential nutrients, and constituting an important basis

154 H. Elbasiouny et al.
for soil C, a media for soil life, a habitat for micro- and macroorganisms, and a tool
for weed management. Therefore, the protection of soil resources entails savings of
external inputs such as fertilizers and soil amendments, concurrently lowering the
requirements of external energy consumption [25].
Furthermore, inappropriate manure storage in large-scale and traditional animal
production rises GHGs emission because waste is often combined in large lagoons
and holding ponds instead of being directly incorporated into soil. Gaseous products
(such as CO2,H
2S, NH3, and CH4) are produced and released into the atmosphere
through manure storage and decomposition. Research has demonstrated that manure
stored on conventional farms emitted approximately 25% more CH4gas than organic
farms, indicating the significant impact of organic animal production on reducing
GHGs emission [6].
8.7 Waste Management for Climate Change Mitigation
Waste management means the collection, transport, recovery, and disposal of waste,
involving the supervision of such processes and the after-care of disposal sites [11].
As population growth increases, changes in lifestyle and consumption patterns
increase and have been the main motivations of an increased waste production which
causes various impacts on environment and public health. In the last decades, waste
management became a main issue, and several processes have been innovated for
organic wastes treatment such as composting. Nevertheless, some wastes cannot be
composted (e.g., oils) because of its low economic cost in addition to waste reduction
in landfills [26]. Waste management system was changed long before the develop-
ment of our recent civilization. Various key innovations have been occurred histori-
cally in waste management development. In this context, four major key innovations
can be considered in waste management systems, with different main technologies,
methods, and tools [12,27]. Zaman and Lehmann [12] illustrated the schematic
waves of these innovations in waste management systems in Fig. 8.1 as follows: (1)
open dumping which is still available in various low-income countries; (2) uncon-
trolled landfill; (3) waste composting; and (4) the recycling and controlled landfill. In
the twentieth century, waste-to-energy technologies become the fifth wave of waste
management systems, while in the twenty-first century, the zero waste becomes the
sixth wave in waste management systems and the most holistic innovation for waste
management systems for reaching a true sense of sustainability in the waste man-
agement systems.
Pietzsch et al. [28] referred to zero waste as “a broader approach when compared
to that described in the solid waste hierarchy,” They also point that zero waste is “a
term refers to a unifying the concept that embraces a series of measures that aim to
eliminate waste and to challenge traditional thoughts,” Also, they reported that waste
is a resource under zero waste concept. Singh et al. [14] categorized the zero waste
into subsystems; (1) zero waste in administration and manufacture; (2) zero resource
waste (3) zero emissions; (4) zero waste in product life and; (5) zero toxic use.

8 Agricultural Waste Management for Climate Change Mitigation … 155
Fig. 8.1 Innovation waves in waste management systems. Source Zaman and Lehmann [12]
It is worth mention that circular economy as a sustainable economic growth mode
considers the highly effective use of the resources as well the circulation uses as a
core, considers 3Rs (i.e., reduce, reuse, and recycle) as the principle, and considers
low consumption, low emissions, high efficiency as characteristics. Each of 3Rs has
three aspects as following:
– Reduce: (1) reducing material, water, and energy input; (2) reducing product man-
ufacturing that originally not needed, and (3) reducing the people’s demand not
the quality of life.
– Reuse: (1) considering a thing multipurpose; (2) developing with waste as raw
material remanufacturing industry, and (3) using the renewable resources substi-
tution non-renewable resources as much as possible.
– Recycle: (1) consider the wastes of raw materials to become the initiative interior
materials circulation; (2) building technology park; and (3) constructing circular
economic system differ that from traditional, recognize resource recycling utiliza-
tion [29].
Xuan et al. [29] also illustrated that in the agricultural development of the circular
economy, the greatest difference with traditional agriculture is the resource con-
servation and recycling. This considers the way of modern agricultural production
technology of a revolution (see Fig. 8.2).
The waste management hierarchy is accepted guide for prioritizing waste manage-
ment systems nationally and internationally to achieve optimal resource utilization
and environmental outcomes. It orders the waste management practices, ascendingly
from most to least preferred to: waste prevention; reusing; recycling; composting,
incineration, and final landfill. Therefore, this hierarchy is one of the guiding prin-
ciples of the zero waste system [22]. Loiseau et al. [30] reported that the waste
hierarchy approach, in addition to, and the wastes prevention are important elements

156 H. Elbasiouny et al.
Fig. 8.2 Agricultural resource recycling [29]
of green economy by improving resource efficiency, reducing need for raw materials,
and aiming at closing the material flows. Lausselet et al. [19] also emphasized on
that waste management is based on the waste hierarchy, which sets the following
priority order: prevention, reuse, recycling, energy recovery, and disposal, as the
least favored option. Furthermore, protecting the environment and the public is the
purpose of waste management by keeping manure and contaminated waters far from
surface and groundwater and governing the application of manure nutrients to crops,
hence such that nutrients are available in the right quantity, at the perfecting time
and the suitable place [31]. Adeniran et al. [32] reported that an integrated waste
management system is one of the main challenges facing sustainable development.
Many factors have aggravated the problem of utilizing agricultural wastes including
[7,9]:
(1) the absence of environmental awareness;
(2) low knowledge level and skills influencing the behavior of farmers in handling
agricultural waste;
(3) burning agricultural wastes such as happened in the rice-cultivated fields which
generates many poisonous and harmful oxides and hydrocarbonates;
(4) many farmers now consider the residue utilization as an additional cost with
small returns; and
(5) furthermore, they consider the best way to get rid of those residues by dumping,
open burning, etc., but the environmental hazards of such practices cannot be
ignored. Thus, the misuse of these wastes represents dangerous environmental
damage and a dissipation of an important economic resource.
Global climate change is the most environmental challenge society facing. Atmo-
spheric CO2,CH
4, and N2O are the most effective long-lived GHGs that contribute
to global warming. Agriculture contributes to approximately 10–12% of total global
anthropogenic GHGs emission and is realized as an important source of GHGs emis-
sion. CO2and CH4emissions are derived in cropland from different practices such
as biomass burning, soil tillage, drainage, rice management, flooding, the applica-
tion of fertilizers as well residues. N2O is derived in the agricultural sector from the

8 Agricultural Waste Management for Climate Change Mitigation … 157
activities of soil microorganisms, such as nitrification and denitrification processes,
that can be declined by the field management practices such as no-tillage and straw
return. Although the livestock sector contributes about 40–50% of agricultural GDP,
it also should be responsible for GHGs emission of 5.6–7.5 Gt CO2-eq/yr; there-
fore, to mitigate global warming potential, it is so important to reduce the emissions
from manures or wastes and to motivate carbon sequestration [33]. Asim et al. [23]
reported that local agricultural wastes are associated with two significant issues:
decomposing of agricultural wastes emits CH4and leachate. Furthermore, farm-
ers usually burn local agricultural wastes producing not only CO2, but also other
local pollutants. Therefore, proper management of agricultural wastes can decline
water and soil contamination, mitigate climate change, reduce local air pollution,
and reduce environmental depletion.
Therefore, agricultural wastes management goals are representing in:
(1) Maximizing the economic benefit from the waste resource: It is necessary to
focus on increasing the value of these wastes to maximize farmers’ profit and
the overall return of the agricultural production.
(2) Maintaining acceptable environmental standards: If wastes are not properly han-
dled, they can pollute surface and groundwater and contribute to air pollution.
Therefore, proper waste management reduces the expected environmental risks
on farmers and reducing the hazardous of environment pollution and the waste
of its various elements [7,34].
Hence, an integrated waste management approach is one of the major challenges
facing sustainable development [32].
Then, agricultural residues must certainly be disposed or utilized for specific pur-
poses to avoid many problems such as contamination, pest growth, occupying large
areas of land and hampering agricultural work [17]. Agricultural wastes should be
recognized as a resource that might be utilized for many purposes such as animal
feed, compost, or biogas without negative impact on the environment [18]. As the
above-mentioned reasons and explanations, it is important to learn and train farmers
how to maximize their benefits from agricultural wastes, by recycling economically
valuable materials, to generate further income which could help raise their income
and living standard [7]. Effective waste management is one of the big challenges
in most Arab countries, such as Egypt, due to increasing population growth rate as
well, rapid urbanization. As an accompanying feature, implementation of such man-
agement systems is normally hampered by lack of many crucial ingredients, such
as information, organization, financial resources, complexity, or system multidimen-
sionality. According to published data and information from local sources, there is no
ultimate or common rate for all Arab countries at which wastes are generated. This
is because differs from country to another and among different regions within the
same country, according to community characteristics, social conditions, and aver-
age income in each area. Although many research studies have been performed to
determine effective factors influencing waste management systems in cities of devel-
oping countries, only a few gave quantitative information. In 2008, the Arab Forum

158 H. Elbasiouny et al.
for Environment and Development stated that statistics and data about quantities
of solid waste in most Arab countries are not available. Regarding solid municipal
waste, the gross generated quantity from Arab countries is estimated at 81.3 million
ton yearly based on an average rate of about 0.7 kg per capita daily [18].
8.8 Traditional Uses of Agricultural Wastes
Farmers usually are using crop residues very well for many purposes such as building,
heating, livestock feeding, and fertilizing. Agriculture modernization and economic
and social development are enough reasons leading to deep changes in rural energy
and the structure of feedstuffs; as a result, the traditional approaches for applications
of crop residues have declined and plans of modern approaches for utilizing these
residues have expanded. Hence, waste should be handled as a by-product to combine
the old traditions and modern technologies for sustainable development achievement
[9].
Traditionally, there are many new attractive and profitable approaches for utilizing
crop residues. Crop residue can be used for providing an organic source to the soil,
animal feed and padding, mushroom production, cooking, utensil making, compost
production, and energy production. Furthermore, several research programs are pro-
ceeding in the USA, several European countries, China, India, and other countries to
use biomass. However, the attention is paid to the five crops with the highest amount
of wastes (i.e., rice, corn, wheat/barley, cotton, and sugarcane) [9,16].
(1) Animal Feeding: Despite the abundance of agricultural wastes, there are many
places in the world suffering from a lack of animal feed materials such as Egypt,
and consequently import a large proportion of these materials annually to fill the
gap of feeding and the deficit in the feed budget that tends to rise yearly. Hence,
there is an urgent need to motivate the attention to recycle the crop wastes for
animal feeding [7].
–Treatment with Urea and Injection with Ammonia
In most developing countries, the limited availability of protein source is a prob-
lem for animal feeding although great efforts have been done to find alternative
supplements. On the other hand, crop residues have a high fiber content and are
low in protein, starch, and fat. Cell walls of straw primarily are lignin, cellulose,
and hemicelluloses. Therefore, the traditional method to increase livestock pro-
duction by supplementing forage and pasture with grains and proteins concen-
trate may not meet future meat protein needs. Transforming wastes into animal
foodstuffs would help in a greater deal in overcoming the deficiency of animal
foodstuffs. This is because these wastes have a high content of fiber while low
protein, starch, and fat make them not easily digestible and the size of the waste
in its natural form might be too big or tough for the animals to eat. To overcome
these problems, several methods were used to transform the agricultural waste

8 Agricultural Waste Management for Climate Change Mitigation … 159
into a more edible form with higher nutritional value and better digestibility.
The chemical treatment method with urea or ammonia is more feasible than the
mechanical treatment method [9]. On the other hand, rice straw is high in lignin
and silica [9,35]. Both those components play an important role in reducing
the digestibility of straw. The crude protein content of rice straw is generally
between 3 and 5% of the dry matter. Any crop residue with less than 8% crude
protein is considered inadequate as a livestock feed because it is unlikely that
such residues, without supplementation, could sustain nitrogen balance in the
animal. Rice straw is the most abundant feed resource for ruminant animals in
Vietnam especially during the dry season [9].
–Silage Production
Major percent of the forages such as wheat, maize, grasses, and legumes are
produced and stored as silage. The process is maintaining the wet forage crops
under anaerobic condition to improve its nutrient content. Thus, pH will decline,
and the wet forage is conserved from spoilage microorganisms. This technique
is safe, easy to use, and does not pollute the environment. Therefore, the products
are considered as natural products [36].
(2) Composting: Although composting is a methodology boosts recycling of
organic wastes, it is approved by the UNFCCC as one of the few method-
ologies that reduce emission related to agriculture [37]. It is worth notice here
that there are different types of compost: Green compost is made from tree and
yard wastes, crop residues, and other wastes of plant origin; and brown compost
which obtained from animal manure, municipal organic wastes, and kitchen and
canteen wastes [38]. By composting, organic matter generated from multiple
waste methods is going through a process which kills pathogens. It results in
stable organic material used in agricultural soils as a soil conditioner which
improves soil fertility, structure, water holding capacity, and buffering capacity.
Composting is only acknowledged as a project for emission reduction if only
the “baseline scenario” in a certain country causes significant GHG emissions.
This is, for instance, the status in Egypt, where most wastes are landfilled or
illegally dumped. In this case, some processes such as fermentation or rotting
will start because of a lack of oxygen. Through fermentation, microbes will emit
CH4, a GHG which is about 25 times greater than CO2. The new composting
scenario avoids the CH4emission of for a substantial part. However, it causes
more emissions as a result of biomass transport and fuel use on the compost-
ing facility. As well, the emissions of N2O because of microbial activities may
be higher through composting than through fermentation [37]. Andersen et al.
[39] added that the main potential disadvantage of composting is generation
and emission of gaseous compounds such as CH4,N
2O, and carbon monoxide
(CO). The emission of CO2from composting activities is derived from plant
material breakdown and is usually considered as neutral in terms of affecting
global warming (i.e., the global warming potential (GWP) of CO2is zero). In
the contrary, CH4and N2O are strong GHGs and are recognized as contribu-
tors to the greenhouse effect. This is because the GWP is 25 and 298 for CH4

160 H. Elbasiouny et al.
and N2O, respectively, indicating that they are higher 25 and 298 times potent
GHGs than CO2over a century time horizon. Budgeting of GHGs’ emission
from composting activities is important toward the development of technolo-
gies for alleviating emissions and improving the accuracy of considerations for
quantifiable compost emission models. This should improve consistency, com-
parability, and accuracy of emissions’ data reported via various national and
international databases.
Smith et al. [1] reported the potential of compost to replace the use of mineral fer-
tilizers. Compost consists of significant concentrations of the three macronutrients for
the plant; NPK: nitrogen phosphorus and potassium. Although their concentrations
in compost are low in comparison with inorganic fertilizers, they may nevertheless
be of value to crops and reduce the need for inorganic fertilizer applications. In the
case of N, the plant nutrient required in greatest quantities, nearly all the N present in
compost is incorporated into organic compounds. This N only becomes available for
uptake by plants after microorganisms have converted the organic N into inorganic
forms, namely ammonium (NH4+) and nitrate (NO3−) ions. Inorganic fertilizers pro-
vide a source of N to the crop that is therefore readily available at the time required
by the growth of the crop. However, there are several potential adverse impacts of
inorganic fertilizer use. Groundwater pollution: Inorganic N supplied in excess of
the crop’s immediate needs may be leached out of the soil by infiltrating water, threat-
ening contamination of groundwater resources. N2O release: Denitrifying bacteria
convert NO3−to N2O at anaerobic microsites in the soil, thus contributing to the
greenhouse effect. Emissions from fertilizer production: Production of fertilizers is
very energy-intensive, causing CO2release from fossil fuels, and production of N
fertilizers also causes the release of N2O.
(3) Food Production
–Mushroom Production
Application of rice straw for plantation of mushrooms is well known. Recently,
oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus spp.) have become increasingly common and are
now cultivated in several subtropical and temperate countries ([9]). It grows
rapidly on many agrowastes such as wheat straw, olive cake, banana leaves,
tomato tuff, and pine needles [40]. Its commercial cultivation is mostly done on
straw, but in some places such as Singapore, the non-composted cotton waste
accompanied with rice bran and calcium carbonate is used and also proved
an effectual substrate. Rice straw is an essential substrate for the growing of
Agaricus bisporus in Asia, whereas in Japan, Taiwan, and Korea, rice straw
composts have been used with consistent results for many years. Rice straw
has enough nutrients and considered the best suitable material for mushroom
growing in all producing countries such as China, the Philippines, and Indonesia.
Cotton wastes can also be used for mushroom production ([9]).

8 Agricultural Waste Management for Climate Change Mitigation … 161
(4) Renewable Energy Resources
The world’s present economy is highly dependent on several fossil energy sources
like oil, coal, and natural gas. These are being used to produce fuel, electricity, and
other goods. Excessive consumption of such fuel resources, especially in large urban
areas, has led to the generation of high pollution levels during the last few decades.
The level of GHGs in the earth’s atmosphere has drastically raised. As well, with
the increasing human population rate and increasing industrial prosperity, energy
consumption also has increased globally. As the annual global oil production begins
to decline in the future, there is a need to rapidly reduce the emission of GHGs,
increase the renewable energy production, and improve the resource efficiency [41,
42]. Subsequently, alternative renewable energy sources such as wind, water, sun,
biomass, and geothermal heat should be considered for the energy industry. All
petroleum-based fuel sources can be replaced by renewable biomass sources like
bioethanol, biodiesel, biohydrogen, etc., which can be derived from many sources
such as sugarcane, corn, and switchgrass algae [42].
In the last decade, the growing interest in bioenergy production and the promotion
of sustainable agriculture have resulted in the need for enhancing crop residue man-
agement. Crop wastes are historically applied for other purposes, such as bedding
and feed for livestock, a substrate for mushroom production as well as raw material
for cooking [25].
With upcoming global warming, excessive increasing energy costs, and elevated
cost of crop wastes disposal, more concern should be directed to the efficient dis-
posal methods of biomass, such as its bioconversion into methane-rich biogas [24].
Tora et al. [43] reported that if the agricultural wastes can be an energy source, the
embedded energy should be extracted efficiently. To do that, different technologies
can be used such as:
(1) Combustion processes can release the heat content of the agricultural wastes;
(2) Fermentation as a biological method that can convert the embedded energy
content into fuels;
(3) Biodiesel production as a chemical conversion method to convert the biomass
into diesel; and
(4) Pyrolysis and gasification as thermochemical conversion methods to release
the heat content and in turn to produce high-heating valuable oil and gaseous
mixtures.
As reported by Tora et al. [43], gasification is an effective technology that can
convert the agricultural residues into gaseous mixture. However, it is a complicated
process taking place in different stages. “The process is endothermic at the begin-
ning, and then becomes exothermic in the remaining of the process”. Sarkar et al.
[42] stated that biogas has also been identified as a possible motor fuel on organic
farms in the rapid and intermediate terms. Biogas is made by anaerobic digestion of
organic materials. When used as biofuel, CO2is separated from the gas for increas-
ing the content and the gaseous fuel can be kept at high pressure. Matheri et al.
[44] and Dahiya et al. [45] stated that biogas is comprised of gases such as CH4,

162 H. Elbasiouny et al.
CO2,H
2, CO, hydrogen sulfide (H2S), ammonia NH3, and a trace amount of oxygen
(O2). It is produced under controlled conditions by the bacterial decomposition of
biodegradable organic materials. These materials include municipal solid waste and
agricultural, industrial and animal wastes. When operating the process at optimum
conditions, the ratio of CH4:CO2is about 60:40. Biogas is a source of bioenergy,
and when it is produced with satisfactory amount and standard, it can be utilized for
electricity or heating. In addition, in combustion, CH4is converted into bioenergy.
Thus, it is not released to the surroundings. Nevertheless, CO2is released in a small
amount that does not affect the atmosphere compared to that of CH4and N2O when
they are in the atmosphere (because in this case they have a great impact as a result
of their greater ability to trap energy comparing to CO2).
In general, biogas energy techniques have lower GHGs emission than fossil energy
ones, especially when biogas is used as fuel in transportation [46,19]. Also empha-
sized that biogas is clean renewable energy generated anaerobically and can substitute
traditional sources of energy such as fossil fuels, and oil. Pérez-Camacho and Curry
[41] stated the most common utilization option for the biogas is its combustion in
a biogas engine to produce electricity and/or heat. However, the biogas can also be
promoted for other utilization options such as biomethane or biodiesel as part of
a larger bioenergy system, or utilized for energy and chemicals production in the
biorefinery concept.
Recently, ethanol is the most widely consumed liquid biofuel for motor vehicles.
The importance of ethanol is rising due to several reasons such as global warming and
climate change. Bioethanol has been receiving widespread interest internationally,
nationally, and regionally. The global market for bioethanol has entered a stage of
rapid, transitional growth. Many countries worldwide are shifting their attention to
renewable sources of power production as well as transport fuel because of depleting
the crude oil reserves. Therefore, ethanol has potential as a valuable [42]. Asim et al.
[23] mentioned some energy products from converted agricultural wastes such as
ethanol, biodiesel, methanol, heat and steam, oil, synthetic fuel, producer gas, and
charcoal.
Li et al. [47] reported that although a huge quantity of wastes still unutilized,
progressively more concern is being paid to ecological issues and then, more waste
is being reused and recycled. Some of the researches focused on using wastes as
fertilizers, others concerned using these wastes for biogas production. However, a
comparison of the GHGs emission of agricultural wastes used for fertilizers and
those wastes used for biogas productions looks to be lacking [47].
8.9 Modern Uses of Agricultural Wastes
Nowadays, there are many uses and utilizations of agricultural wastes of these:
Bioplastic Production from Agricultural Wastes

8 Agricultural Waste Management for Climate Change Mitigation … 163
Population growth has led to increasing the growth in agricultural activities, thus
increasing the generation of agricultural wastes indirectly. The petroleum-based tra-
ditional seedling and plantation plant pots or polybags are considered the most widely
wastes generated. These pots and polybags are non-biodegradable and usually are dis-
posed after usage in landfills which will lead to pollution. To solve this issue, the con-
cerned industries are investigating to find an alternative for these non-biodegradable
pots and bags. Because the level of environmental awareness elevated, the public
starts recycling wastes with the help of new technology [48]. Emadian et al. [49]
stated that worldwide, 34 million tons of plastic wastes are generated yearly, and
93% of these wastes are disposed in landfills or oceans. Some members of the Euro-
pean Union (EU) have forbidden landfilling applications. However, about 50% of
these wastes are still disposed in landfills. Although many countries such as Sweden,
Germany, Netherlands, Denmark, and Austria succeed to achieve 80–100% in the
recovery of plastic wastes, the recycling was only 28% on average. Although the EU
countries attempt to combat the disposing of plastic wastes and develop reusing and
recycling applications, developing countries are still relying on conventional land-
filling. The plastic consumption in developing countries has been reported to be more
than that of the world average because of the higher rate of urbanization and eco-
nomic development. The recycled newspaper pulp fibers are used as a basic source
for biofiber materials for many purposes such as construction, paperboard packag-
ing, newsprint, insulation, or building materials. To maximize the using of recycled
newspaper pulp fiber, industries are searching for more usage of such fibers into
other products. Bioplastic pot is one of these products; it is a mixture of newspaper
pulp fibers and bioplastic. It will be an alternative for other type (i.e., non-degradable
plantation and seedling plant pot). As well, the presence of newspaper pulp fibers
and bioplastic can produce high durable and degradable pots. Additionally, swelling
of pots, caused by water absorption during production and planting process, can be
reduced by occurrence of bioplastic in these pots [48].
Emadian et al. [49] also reported that plastic is the most commonly used poly-
mer in our daily life, especially in packaging usages. The annual production of this
petroleum-based plastic was higher than 300 million ton in 2015. This excessive
production of this kind of plastics requires sustainable alternatives from renewable
resources. Additionally, the negative environmental impacts such as CO2emis-
sions and their long accumulation in the environment as a result to their non-
biodegradability are the significant problems of using this non-biodegradable plastic.
Concrete Production from Agricultural Wastes
Nowadays, concrete has become the widest building material used in the construction
industry. Besides its strength, it can easily be molded into any form, as well, it is an
engineered material meet most desired specification. Also, it is also adaptable, eas-
ily obtained incombustible, and affordable. Today, it is extensively used. However,
unfortunately, a great quantity of concrete is being produced. The effect of which is
contrary to its advantages, the concrete industry has had a huge effect on the environ-
ment. As well, the CO2emission is resulted during its industrial process with a large
raw material content to produce billions of tons of concrete globally every year. The

164 H. Elbasiouny et al.
cement industry only is responsible for approximately 7% of all the CO2generated
globally. Also, the demolition waste of concrete and its environmental impact has
made the concrete industry is no-friendly and unsuitable for sustainable develop-
ment. Thus, many studies attempted to focus on discovering alternatives to cement,
for instance, agricultural and industrial wastes that are disposable and less valu-
able, with potential benefits can through reusing, recycling, and renewing programs.
Previous studies revealed that some agrowastes could be used as an alternative for
cement in cement-based materials. This can provide materials more environmentally
friendly in such industries [50]. Rice husk ash, fly ash, bagasse, coconut ash, etc.,
are the main agrowastes source of cement or concrete production. The use of such
material in the building material industries has gained growing interest because of
various environmental, economic, technical, and specialized product quality reason
[51].
In addition to previous products of agricultural wastes, there are other usages.
It can used as a raw material for many products such as textiles, panel boards,
cordage, paper product insulators, and upholstery. The other examples are presented
in the production of activated carbon from hulls after the biodiesel processing and
polymeric composites from the seed cake [23].
8.10 Agricultural Wastes: Some Implications to Egypt
In Egypt, the consumption of petroleum products and natural gas as traditional source
for energy increased year by year as shown in Table 8.1. Subsequently, CO2emissions
and the cost of environmental impacts on the national economy increased yearly.
Nile Delta, Egypt, is one of the most vulnerable areas to the potential impacts and
climate change risks [52]. Therefore, utilizing agricultural wastes to generate clean
and renewable energy resource is required in the future to overcome the previously
mentioned environmental problems from misusing of agricultural wastes.
In 2012, agricultural wastes in Egypt were estimated as 30 million ton (about
82,200 ton daily). A huge portion of these wastes was either burned in the fields or
wrongly dumped on the banks and drains. This creates obstacles to water flow and
water quality. Burning of agricultural crop wastes (especially crop wastes) present a
problem in Egypt. Rice cultivation in Egypt is estimated by approximately 360,000 ha
of rice based on 2008 statistics, with a rice straw production of 6 million ton [53].
Data in Table 8.2 present pollutants that have reduced as a result of processing with
rice straw (2010–2013) as an action to minimize the pollutants resulted from rice
straw burning.

8 Agricultural Waste Management for Climate Change Mitigation … 165
Table 8.1 Quantity and cost of CO2emissions due to petroleum and natural gas consumption
2004–2014 (http://www.sis.gov.eg)
Year Consumption of
petroleum products and
natural gas (million ton)
CO2emissions (million
ton)a
The cost of
environmental impacts
on the national economy
(million US$)b
2004/2005 49 133.5 10,680
2005/2006 50 139.4 11,152
2006/2007 53 148.5 11,880
2007/2008 60 159.0 12,720
2008/2009 63 166.7 13,336
2009/2010 67 177.0 14,160
2010/2011 68 182.0 14,560
2011/2012 72 192.0 15,360
2012/2013 73 197.0
2013/2014 73 197.0
aExcluding the consumption of natural gas in industry sector for non-energy purpose
bEnvironmental impacts from CO2emissions was estimated by 80 US$/ton approximately
Table 8.2 Pollutants that have reduced as a result of processing with rice straw
(2010–2013) (http://www.sis.gov.eg)
Item 2010 2011 2012 2013
Rice straw which were processed 600,000 365,274 312,000 200,000
Total suspended T. S. P. 6000 3653 3210 2000
Sulfur dioxide, SO241 25 21 14
Nitrogen oxides, NO2245 149 128 82
8.11 Conclusions
The increasing quantity of agricultural waste and its inappropriate disposal or burning
especially in developing countries have always been putting press on the environ-
mental safety and population health. Also, it also leads to increasing the global GHGs
emission and increasing global warming and global climate change impacts. Thus,
appropriate and environmentally friendly methods for utilizing agricultural wastes
and transforming them into valuable resources is very necessary for climate change
mitigation. Many methods are used increasingly to the benefit of these wastes. How-
ever, many others are required to be adopted for such purposes.

166 H. Elbasiouny et al.
8.12 Recommendations
The following recommendations are highlighted:
(1) More studies on utilizing agricultural wastes are urgent either for generating
new energy resources, for finding new uses, or maximizing the recent benefit
uses for overcoming the environmental problems.
(2) Increasing awareness of the negative impacts of misusing or burring agricultural
wastes is required specially these wastes are valuable and potential source of
wealth.
(3) Utilizing the local farmers experience in dealing with agricultural wastes espe-
cially in their local sites is very important specially if integrated with the new
scientific findings by the specialized researchers.
(4) Supporting of governments and policy making will be very beneficial to farmers
to effective utilizing of agricultural wastes as a wealth source and to mitigate
the potential impacts of climate changes.
References
1. Smith A, Brown K, Ogilvie S, Rushton K, Bates J (2001) Waste management options and
climate change final report to the European commission. DG Environment Luxembourg: Office
for Official Publications of the European Communities. ISBN 92-894-1733-1
2. Hagos K, Zong J, Li D, Liu C, Lu X (2017) Anaerobic co-digestion process for biogas produc-
tion: progress, challenges and perspectives. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 76:1485–1496. https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.11.184
3. Dhar H, Kumar S, Kumar R (2017) A review on organic waste to energysystems in India. Biore-
sour Technol 245(Pt A):1229–1237. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2017.08.159. Epub 31
Aug 2017
4. Wang B, Dong F, Chen M, Zhu J, Tan J, Fu X, Wang Y, Chen S (2016) Advances in recycling
and utilization of agricultural wastes in China: based on environmental risk, crucial pathways,
influencing factors, policy mechanism. The tenth international conference on waste manage-
ment and technology (ICWMT). Procedia Environ Sci 31:12–17
5. Dedinec A, Markovska N, Ristovski I, Velevski G, Gjorgjievska VT, Grncarovska TO, Zdraveva
P (2015) Economic and environmental evaluation of climate change mitigation measures in
the waste sector of developing countries. J Clean Prod 88:234–241
6. Niles M (2008) Sustainable soils: reducing, mitigating, and adapting to climate change with
organic agriculture. Sustain Dev Law Policy 9(1):19–23:68–69
7. Hassan H, El Gebaly M, Abdul Ghani S, Hussein M (2014) An economic study of recycling
agricultural wastes in Egypt. Middle East J Agric Res 3(3):592–608
8. He K, Zhang J, Zeng Y, Zhang L (2016) Households’ willingness to accept compensation for
agricultural waste recycling: taking biogas production from livestock manure waste in Hubei,
P. R. China as an example. J Clean Prod 131:410–420. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.
05.009
9. Abou Hussein SD, Sawan OM (2010) The utilization of agricultural waste as one of the envi-
ronmental issues in Egypt. J Appl Sci Res 6(8):1116–1124
10. Sarnklong C, Cone JW, Pellikaan W, Hendriks WH (2010) Utilization of rice straw and different
treatments to improve its feed value for ruminants. Asian-Aust J Anim Sci 23(5):680–692
11. EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) (2012) National waste report for 2012. Ireland

8 Agricultural Waste Management for Climate Change Mitigation … 167
12. Zaman AU, Lehmann S (2011) Challenges and opportunities in transforming a city into a “zero
waste city”. Challenges 2:73–93. https://doi.org/10.3390/challe2040073
13. Zaman AU, Lehmann S (2013) The zero waste index: a performance measurement tool for
waste management systems in a ‘zero waste city’. J Clean Prod 50:123–132. https://doi.org/
10.1016/j.jclepro.2012.11.041
14. Singh S, Ramakrishna S, Gupta MK (2017) Towards zero waste manufacturing: a multidisci-
plinary review. J Clean Prod 168:1230–1243. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.09.108
15. Bakker R, Elbersen W, Poppens R, Lesschen JP (2013) Rice straw and wheat straw. Potential
feedstocks for the biobased economy. NL Agency, Scientific report, Netherlands Programmes
Sustainable Biomass. www.agentschapNL.nl/biomass
16. Khanh D, Thanh N (2010) Management of agricultural waste and potential for cobenefits.
Haiphong
17. Rodríguez A, Rosal A, Jiménez L (2010) Biorefinery of agricultural residues by fractionation
of their components through hydrothermal and organosolv processes. AfinidAd LXVii(545),
Enero, 14–21
18. Elfeki M, Tkadlec E (2015) Treatment of municipal organic solid waste in Egypt. J Mater
Environ Sci 6(3):756–764
19. Lausselet C, Cherubini F, Oreggioni GD, Serrano GA, Becidan M, Hu X, Kr. Rørstad P, Strøm-
man AH (2017) Norwegian waste-to-energy: climate change, circular economy and carbon
capture and storage. Resour Conserv Recycl 126:50–61
20. Yevich R, Logan JA (2003) An assessment of biofuel use and burning of agricultural waste
in the developing world. Global Biogeochem Cycles 17(4):1095. https://doi.org/10.1029/
2002GB001952
21. Viana M, López JM, Querol X, Alastuey A, García-Gacio D, Blanco-Heras G, López-Mahía P,
Piñeiro-Iglesias M, Sanz MJ, Sanz F, Chi X, Maenhaut W (2008) Tracers and impact of open
burning of rice straw residues on PM in Eastern Spain. Atmos Environ 42:1941–1957
22. Song Q, Li J, Zeng X (2015) Minimizing the increasing solid waste through zero waste strategy.
J Clean Prod 104:199–210. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.08.027
23. Asim N, Emdadi Z, Mohammad M, Yarmo MA, Sopian K (2015) Agricultural solid wastes
for green desiccant applications: an overview of research achievements, opportunities and
perspectives. J Clean Prod 91:26–35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.12.015
24. Liu Y, Zhu Y, Jia H, Yong X, Zhang L, Zhou J, Cao Z, Kruse A, Wei P (2017) Effects of
different biofilm carriers on biogas production during anaerobic digestion of corn straw. Biores
Technol 244:445–451. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2017.07.171
25. Raffa DW, Bogdanski A, Dubois O, Tittonell P (2014) Take it or leave it? Towards a decision
support tool on sustainable crop residue use part 1: soil management. Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Rome
26. Félix S, Araújo J, Pires AM, Sousa AC (2017) Soap production: a green prospective. Waste
Manag 66:190–195. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2017.04.036
27. Zaman AU (2015) A comprehensive review of the development of zero waste management:
lessons learned and guidelines. J Clean Prod 91(2015):12–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.
jclepro.2014.12.013.http://www.sis.gov.eg. Accessed on 15 Nov 2018
28. Pietzsch N, Ribeiro JLD, de Medeiros JF (2017) Benefits, challenges and critical factors of
success for zero waste: a systematic literature review. Waste Manage 67:324–353. http://dx.
doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2017.05.004
29. Xuan L, Baotong D, Hua Y (2011) The research based on the 3-R principle of agro-circular
economy model-the Erhai Lake Basin as an example. Energy Procedia 5:1399–1404. https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2011.03.242
30. Loiseau E, Saikku L, Antikainen R, Droste N, Hansjürgens B, Pitkeanen K, Leskinen P,
Kuikman P, Thomsen M (2016) Green economy and related concepts: an overview. J Cleaner
Prod 139(2016):361–371. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.08.024
31. Classen JJ, Lal H (2012) Agricultural waste management systems and software tools. In:
Rebellon LFM (ed) Waste management, an integrative vision. Intech Open. http://dx.doi.org/
10.5772/50484

168 H. Elbasiouny et al.
32. Adeniran AE, Nubi AT, Adelopo AO (2017) Solid waste generation and characterization in the
University of Lagos for a sustainable waste management. Waste Manag 67:3–10. https://doi.
org/10.1016/j.wasman.2017.05.002
33. Li Z, Wang D, Sui P, Long P, Yan L, Wang X, Yan P, Shen Y, Dai H, Yang X, Cui J, Chen
Y (2018) Effects of different agricultural organic wastes on soil GHG emissions: During a
4-year field measurement in the North China Plain. Waste Manag 81:202–210. https://doi.org/
10.1016/j.wasman.2018.10.008
34. Ungureanu G, Ignat G, Vintu CR, Diaconu CD, Sandu IG (2017) Study of utilization of agri-
cultural waste as environmental issue in Romania. Rev Chim 68(3):570–575
35. Pathak H, Singh R, Bhatia A, Jain N (2006) Recycling of rice straw to improve wheat yield
and soil fertility and reduce atmospheric pollution. Paddy Water Environ 4:111–117. https://
doi.org/10.1007/s10333-006-0038-6
36. Mohd-Setapar SH, Abd-Talib N, Aziz R (2012) Review on crucial parameters of silage quality.
ICCCP 2012: 5–6 May 2012, Kuala Lumpur. APCBEE Procedia 3:99–103
37. Luske B (2010) Reduced GHG emissions due to compost production and compost use in Egypt.
Driebergen, The Netherlands: Louis Bolk Instituut. Rep. 2010-016LBD 30. www.louiSbolk.
org/downloads/2377.pdf
38. Arizzi M, Morra S, Pugliese M, Gullino ML, Gilardi G, Valetti F (2016) Biohydrogen and
biomethane production sustained by untreated matrices and alternative application of compost
waste. Waste Manag 56:151–157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2016.06.039
39. Andersen JK, Boldrin A, Samuelsson J, Christensen TH, Scheutz C (2010) Quantification
of greenhouse gas emissions from windrow composting of garden waste. J Environ Qual
39(2):713–724
40. Alananbeh KM, Bouqellah NA, Al Kaff NS (2014) Cultivation of oyster mushroom Pleurotus
ostreatus on date-palm leaves mixed with other agro-wastes in Saudi Arabia. Saudi J Biol Sci
21:616–625. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sjbs.2014.08.001
41. Pérez-Camacho MN, Curry R (2017) Regional assessment of bioeconomy options using the
anaerobic biorefinery concept. Waste Manag Dispos Proc Inst Civil Eng. http://dx.doi.org/10.
1680/jwarm.17.00015
42. Sarkar N, Ghosh S, Bannerjee S, Aikat K (2012) Bioethanol production from agricultural
wastes. Renew Energy 37:19–27
43. Tora EA, Radwan AM, Hamad MA (2016) Kinetics of the thermal decomposition of Egyptian
cotton stalks, corn stalks, and rice straw. ARPN J Eng Appl Sci 11(9):5711–5716
44. Matheri AN, Ndiweni SN, Belaid M, Muzenda E, Hubert R (2017) Optimising biogas produc-
tion from anaerobic co-digestion of chicken manure and organic fraction of municipal solid
waste. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 80:756–764. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2017.05.068
45. Dahiya A, Kumar AN, Sravan JS, Chatterjee S, Sarkar O, Mohan SV (2018) Food waste
biorefinery: sustainable strategy for circular bioeconomy. Biores Technol 248:2–12
46. Jijai S, Siripatana C (2017) Kinetic model of biogas production from co-digestion of Thai rice
noodle wastewater (khanomjeen) with chicken manure. Energy Procedia 138: 386–392. 2017
International conference on alternative energy in developing countries and emerging economies
2017 AEDCEE, 25–26 May 2017, Bangkok, Thailand
47. Li Z, Sui P, Yang X, Dai H, Wang X, Long P, Yan L, Chen Y (2017) Balancing GHG mitigation
and food security through agricultural recycling systems: case studies in the North China Plain.
J Clean Prod 157:222–231. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.04.136
48. Liew K, Khor L (2015) Effect of different ratios of bioplastic to newspaper pulp fibres on the
weight loss of bioplastic pot. J King Saud University Eng Sci 27:137–141
49. Emadian SM, Onay TT, Demirel B (2017) Biodegradation of bioplastics in natural environ-
ments. Waste Manag 59:526–536. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2016.10.006
50. Aprianti E, Shafigh P, Bahri S, FarahaniJN (2017) Supplementary cementitious materials origin
from agricultural wastes—a review. Constr Build Mater 74:176–187. https://doi.org/10.1016/
j.conbuildmat.2014.10.010
51. Kesari KK, Jamal QMS (2017) Review processing, properties and applications of agricul-
tural solid waste: effect of an open burning in environmental toxicology. In: Kesari K (eds)

8 Agricultural Waste Management for Climate Change Mitigation … 169
Perspectives in environmental toxicology. Environmental Science and Engineering. Springer,
Cham
52. Fahim MA, Hassanein MK, Khalil AA, Abou Hadid AF (2013) Climate change adaptation
needs for food security in Egypt. Nature Sci 11(12):68–74
53. Zaki T, Kafafi AG, Mina MB, Abd El-Halim AM, Saber S (2013) Annual report for solid
waste management in Egypt, 2013. New center for Integrated studies of Land & Environment
(NILE). Published by: Ministry of State for Environmental Affairs With Support of: German
Cooperation, Implemented by: GIZ, Designed and Printed by: I-Catchy Advertising Agency