Taiwan Experimenting With Flies To Process Food Waste

TaiwanPlus News

Students in Taiwan's eastern Hualien County are learning how black soldier flies can be used to process the country's food waste in a sustainable way.

Transcript

00:00These fly larvae may not look appetizing to humans,

00:03but they do to chickens,

00:05and they may be key to solving

00:06one of Taiwan's thorniest problems, food waste.

00:10An elementary school in Taiwan's eastern Hualien County

00:13has brought its students to this fly farm

00:15to learn all about what will eventually become

00:17black soldier flies.

00:31The field trip not only seeks to turn student views

00:33of these bugs from gross to cute,

00:36but also to make them aware of the bigger issues.

00:54Officials in Taiwan estimate that the country

00:56throws away about 620,000 metric tons

01:00of food waste annually.

01:01That's enough to fill Taiwan's tallest building,

01:04Taipei 101, 10,000 times.

01:09Finding a way to deal with this waste is critical,

01:12as Taiwan's garbage incinerators

01:14are already at full capacity,

01:16resulting in a growing number of trash mountains

01:19piling up around the country, waiting to be burned.

01:26But food waste can also be turned into fertilizer,

01:29and in this case, animal feed.

01:31From when it hatches through its two-week larval stage,

01:34each worm can consume 30 times its weight in food waste.

01:38The fattened larvae not only become

01:40a high-protein meal for chickens,

01:42but also help with another waste problem, manure.

01:56Each year, Taiwan chicken farms create

01:59about 2.2 million metric tons of manure.

02:02While some of this can be used as fertilizer,

02:05it's estimated that around 70% goes unprocessed.

02:09The flies' own feces can be used as fertilizer

02:12to make manure for chickens,

02:13but it's not enough to feed the chickens.

02:27While these fly farms are relatively small in scale,

02:30they offer a glimpse into the many possibilities

02:32for managing the country's waste,

02:34rather than just throwing it in the bin.

02:37Eason Pan and Chris Gorin for Taiwan Plus.

Category

Transcript

Recommended