**2.4 Environmental issues**

The poor management of agricultural wastes through practices such as open burning and dumping in landfills causes environmental pollution. For instance, high moisture content of banana waste will eventually produce greenhouse gases if it is not properly managed (e.g. by dumping) thereby resulting in disastrous impacts on the environment. Farmers are known to throw banana tree wastes in rivers, ponds, lakes or in-low lying areas where slow degradation occurs thereby generating methane, other gases, and spreading putrescible odors that affect the nearby ecosystem. The farming practice of open fire burning to eliminate bananas wastes also contributes to severe air pollution issues [21]. Fruit residues also cause severe environmental problems as it accumulates in the agro-industry.

Fruit wastes will eventually lead to serious environmental problems as it accumulates in the agro-industrial yard with zero significance and commercial value. The high costs of transportation and the limited availability of landfills have resulted in the unscrupulous disposal of wastes into the environment. Additionally, the problems of disposing of by-products have worsened due to legal restrictions. Pineapple wastes have high BOD and COD values, which exacerbates management and disposal [32]. Scientists have focused on the co-digestion of pineapple wastes together with several other fruits, legume, manure and slaughterhouse wastes to decrease the volatile solids by 50–65% [33]. The environmental problems of pineapple wastes are evident in the world's largest producer, Costa Rica and other countries where the juice industry discards 50–65% of the residual biomass [34].

**Figure 7.** *Pineapple residues from: (a) peels [28]; (b) crown [29].*

*Nano-Cellulosic Fibers from Agricultural Wastes DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.98637*

As for the management of corn wastes, the burning of crop residue eliminates the opportunity to improve organic matter content and potentially leads to substantial loss of nutrients. Nearly all nitrogen and at least 75% of the sulfur in plant residues are lost during combustion. A primary tillage practice designed to chop stalks, deep rip, and establish raised beds in a single operation can save considerable time and fuel expense, compared to several conventional tillage operations. Therefore, it is important to identify and characterize the waste produced to minimize environmental pollution by optimizing waste reduction [35].
