Send in the Flies: Singapore startup uses insects to gobble up food waste

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02:49

Globally, a third of food produced for consumption is wasted, totalling some 1-point-three billion tonnes. If food waste were a country, it would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases. In Singapore, aside from government campaigns to combat food waste, start-ups are coming up with innovative solutions. CGTN's Miro Lu has more on the story.

Meet the master recyclers. These black soldier flies are capable of converting three tons of food waste into one ton of fertilisers per week.

Darren Ho is the founder of Insectta, Singapore's first urban insect farm. Since he became a farmer five years ago, he's committed to create a production system where nothing goes to waste.

DARREN HO CO-FOUNDER, INSECTTA "Food waste, at the end of the day, has a lot of moisture, so it's very hard to burn them away. In that sense, when we feed them into a value-added media, like an insect, we'll be able to get more out of it."

Food accounts for about 10 percent of the total waste generated in Singapore, but only 13 percent of it is recycled. The rest of it is disposed for incineration, which produces greenhouse gases.

The government hopes to change that. In February, Singapore pledged 2019 as the Year Towards Zero Waste. The Minister for Environment and Water Resources also launched a year-long fight to lower food wastage, encouraging people to order only what they can finish.

"Food wastage? A lot of it. You go to the hawker centers and you see people wasting food, they just eat about 20-30 percent, a lot of it gets disposed, it's quite prevalent."

What about the master recyclers? You might ask. Unfortunately, Insectta can only get their food waste from breweries and soya bean manufacturers due to regulations but Darren wants to do more.

DARREN HO CO-FOUNDER, INSECTTA "Post-consumer waste is something we want to focus on, but right now, regulatory requirements only allows us to turn pre-consumer waste, so we're not allowed to go to hawker centres."

MIRO LU SINGAPORE "One of the key measures rolled out as part of Singapore's Zero-Waste Masterplan is that from 2024 all hotels and malls will have to separate their food waste from all other trash. This could be good news for companies like Insectta, as their voracious insect army will have more to chew on. Miro Lu, CGTN, Singapore."