Vol. 11, Issue 1 (2022)

Author(s):
Toko Yarin, Babli Dutta, Dipak Kumar Murmu, PS Medda and Shrilekha Das

Abstract:
India being an agriculture-based country generates lots of waste from agricultural farming and agro-processing industries. Agro and industrial waste particularly from medicinal and aromatic plants generate various solid wastes viz. distilled waste of various aromatic crops and the non-utilized parts of medicinal plants. The increasing demand for natural resources requires careful planning and highlights the value of using plant wastes as a new resource. On the other hand, India produced more than 6.0 million tons per annum of aromatic spent biomass, and waste disposal is a major problem in India. Thus, the huge amounts of wastes that are produced are either burnt by growers or remain in a field that causes environmental pollution and their disposal is becoming a concern. The way of managing the situation is to reduce the losses of biomass and to utilize the available material for the production of value-added products. The waste could be used for the production of fertilizers, fuel, value-added products through processing, extraction, hydrolysis or fermentation and as animal feed. The utilization of waste will not only economize the cost of finished products but also reduce the pollution level.