Analyzing and mapping agricultural waste recycling research: An integrative review for conceptual framework and future directions

Abstract

There is a growing interest in the management and disposal of agricultural waste. In our century, problems such as climate change and depletion of natural water resources due to population growth are causing major economic problems. Addressing these problems offers great opportunities for developing a circular economy that uses innovative technologies and profitable business practices to address agricultural waste recycling. This article aims to shed new light on topics neglected in the literature by analyzing agricultural waste and waste recycling. For this purpose, the dataset obtained from the literature was thoroughly and comprehensively studied using the bibliometric text mining technique. This article also has shown which agricultural wastes are the subject of recycling work and entrepreneurship and has identified changes in research and studies on agricultural wastes that have been the subject of twenty years. This research aims to increase the importance and awareness of the most commonly used topics or terms in waste recycling, the contribution of the circular economy, and the recycling of agricultural waste. The research found that activities such as composting, lignocellulosic biomass, biodiesel and biodiesel production, biogas and biogas production, biohydrogen production, and methane production are increasingly important in the processing and recycling of these wastes, with agro-industrial wastes (fruit, vegetable, and plant wastes) standing out.