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.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
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.