Microbial production and recovery of hybrid biopolymers from wastes for industrial applications- a review

[Display omitted] •Recovery of bioplastics, gels, and fibers from wastes.•Production of biopolymers from wastes by selected microorganisms.•Hybrid biopolymeric structures for the development of high-added value products.•Biomedical applications of hybrid biomaterials: nanoparticles, microparticles, and scaffolds.•Biopolymer blends for drug delivery, tissue engineering, and theragnostic. Agro-industrial wastes to be a global concern since agriculture and industrial processes are growing exponentially with the fast increase of the world population. Biopolymers are complex molecules produced by living organisms, but also found in many wastes or derived from wastes. The main drawbacks for the use of polymers are the high costs of the polymer purification processes from waste and the scale-up in the case of biopolymer production by microorganisms. However, the use of biopolymers at industrial scale for the development of products with high added value, such as food or biomedical products, not only can compensate the primary costs of biopolymer production, but also improve local economies and environmental sustainability. The present review describes some of the most relevant aspects related to the synthesis of hybrid materials and nanocomposites based on biopolymers for the development of products with high-added value.