The Philippine Textile Research Institute (PTRI) of the Department of Science and Techonolgy(DOST) found various ways of utilizing sericulture wastes. When processed, these wastes can be a source of income.
Sericulture consists of three major aspects: moriculture, cocoon production and silk reeling. Moriculture involves the cultivation of mulberry plants to produce leaves used as food for silkworms, while cocoon production involves controlled rearing of silkworm to produce quality cocoons. Silk reeling, on one hand, involves unwinding of silk filament from the cocoon with raw silk as the end product.
In all these aspects of sericulture, a considerable volume of wastes is generated. Since the time when cocoon production was commercialized in the Philippines, only good cocoons were utilized. The wastes were unutilized due to the lack of appropriate technology on waste utilization.