(Asia One) Davao city in the Philippines is in a race against time for a solution to its landfill issues. Rapid urbanisation and poor separation of waste are taking a toll on the city’s only landfill, which will be full by 2023.
Enter the black soldier fly, whose larvae break down biodegradable waste with their strong mouthparts and powerful digestive enzymes, and effectively decompose matter like the debris of rotten animals and plants.
LimaDOL, a start-up in Davao, is using the flies to handle food waste and develop a chemical-free insect protein that can be fed to poultry.
This could be a more affordable and sustainable solution to the city’s waste problem, instead of the construction of a 2.5 billion peso (S$65 million) waste-to-energy (WTE) facility that the local government is considering.
Global environmentalists oppose this as WTE incinerators “produce very little energy while emitting large quantities of climate pollution”, according to international environmental network Gaia.
Carmela Marie Santos, Director of Ecoteneo, Ateneo de Davao University’s environmental organisation, called the WTE project a “false solution” as the problem could be rectified by proper waste segregation instead of constructing a WTE plant… Read More
