Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) processing generates substantial quantities of peels, pulp, and liquid effluents as major by-products. Badly handled, these residues pollute; put to use, they can earn money. This study assessed how aware small-scale processors in Akoko-Edo Local Government Area, Edo State, Nigeria, are of cassava waste utilization and how far they actually use the waste. Using a multistage sampling procedure, 120 processors were drawn from three communities with active cassava processing and interviewed with a structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics summarized the data, and binary logistic regression tested how selected socio-economic variables affect utilization. Women made up 68.3% of respondents, and most were in the economically active age bracket. Awareness was highest for livestock feed (72%) and compost (65%) and lowest for bioenergy (28%) and industrial processing (22%). In practice, 26.7% of processors fed peels to livestock and 21.7% composted, while 41.7% discarded their waste with no productive use. Education, household size, and processing experience each raised the likelihood of utilization significantly (p < 0.05). The distance between knowing and doing suggests that skills and labour, not only information, hold processors back. Extension agencies should therefore offer practical training in cassava waste valorization and promote simple, affordable technologies that turn residues into marketable products.

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