Increased mechanization and harvesting without previous burning – also known as green cane - have introduced major changes in the operating system of agro industrial sugarcane, raising questions about the management of the trash that remains on the field, its uses, and the technological solutions’ needs.Shall the trash be removed from the field? How much trash should be left on the soil? How to remove it? Baling or transporting it along with the cane? What is the trash’s destination? Bioelectricity? Cellulosic ethanol? The purpose of this text is to raise some questions, and present considerations, from the perspective of the sugar and ethanol industry, may contribute to better management and utilization of this important plant residue.The amount of trash left after harvest depends on several factors, including sugarcane variety, plant yield, and the operating conditions of the harvest machine regarding trash and cane separation. Several studies have shown that trash represents about 20% of the stalk yield, or, on average, 15 tons of trash per hectare.In the 1990s, when the mechanized harvesting of sugarcane without burning was starting to be adopted, trash preservation was challenged by three negative effects of maintaining the plant residues on the fields: the increasing incidence of the sugarcane root spittlebug, the occurrence of fires, and the low or delayed sprouting of ratoons under low temperature conditions, depending on the time of year or region where the cane was grown. An enhancement of the deleterious effect of frost, where it occurred, was also noticed.The recent relative stagnation of sugarcane yields and decreased rates of stalks recoverable sugars have also been partially attributed to the expansion of unburned sugarcane. The main reasons for that are the trampling of sugarcane stools due to the traffic of heavy machines during harvesting, the need for systematization and adaptation of fields, damage to ratoons caused by dull or unsharpened cutters, and the increase of plant and mineral impurities in the har-vested cane, which reduce the quality of the feedstock.However, we have evidences that this initial burden or “toll” of unburned sugarcane harvesting can be trans-formed into a bonus, especially regarding the agronomic effects. Notably in the mills of Sao Martinho Group, one of the early adopters of mechanized harvesting of sugarcane, the correct handling of trash has provided, for example, greater availability of soil nutrients and increased soil organic matter content. Combined with other soil management practices such as reduced and localized soil tillage, the trash preservation has enabled effective control of erosion, reduced nutri-ent loss, and emission of greenhouse gases. Biological control with application of the fungus Metharrizium on the fields has maintained spittlebug infestation under control. In addition, the implementation of the “Live Cane Project”, which, among other measures, readjusted the tire spacing of machines decreasing trampling on sugarcane rows, has enabled maintenance of high yields and longevity of ratoons.There are, however, important interactions that have been recently noticed as a consequence of trash manage-ment, among them, the environmental concerns due to the increased level of soil K under trash in areas where vinasse is applied, especially around the mills. As K is rapidly released from trash, K accumulation and leaching, coupled with the application of vinasse, can cause and aggravated high K saturation in the soil.Eventually, the possibility of recovery of all or part of the trash began to be considered at Sao Martinho Group, es -pecially in farms in colder regions and on these specific situations, either because of the drawbacks associated with excess of trash described above, or to make use of the energy value of this residue. The few experimental data available suggest that, in the traditional growing areas of sugarcane in the center-south of Brazil, part of the trash may be removed after harvest without burning, with no significant effects on the soil-plant system. However, this is still an open issue.Some sugar mills have chosen to remove the trash by baling, which requires additional operations and infra-struc-ture such as the windrowing of the plant material in the field, baling, loading and transportation of the bales. Besides, the bales have to be unpacked in the industrial plant before the trash is processed. Some aspects also need to be improved to make this trash collecting system viable, such as the reduction of mineral impurities brought from the field, the control of cane stumps trampling due to the mechanized operations of trash recovery, and the additional cost and final destination of wires (or plastic or sisal ropes) used in the bales.Removal of trash after harvest, besides being an additional operation, disrupts the successive layers of plant mate -rial deposited on the soil along the years, thus forming a structured fabric on the soil surface. The removal of part of the