Business-as-usual municipal sewage sludge (MSS) management practices could impact significantly on public health and the environment. Administrative costs for municipal wastewater treatment plants account for more than 50 %. To reduce administrative costs, the EU has called for the reuse of waste to make it part of the circular economy. One of the options for MSS is reuse to recover bioresources. Because of toilet paper, the main component of the total solids in MSS is cellulose, which could be recovered by chemical or biological processes. Crystalline cellulose is of great use in various fields such as biomedical, pharmaceutical, mechanical and others. There are various solvents to dissolve cellulose present in renewable sources to recover. However, these solvents are not widely used at MSS. This review focuses on solvent options for MSS. It also develops an environmentally friendly protocol for the recovery of nanocellulose from primary MSS using alkali-based solvent systems. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd