Singapore uses insects to gobble up food waste

Today Online 1 Apr 19;

SINGAPORE — Some insects, armed with voracious appetites as larvae, are being bred in Singapore to eat discarded food, at the same time creating a rich fertilizer for plants.

Globally, a third of food produced for consumption is wasted, totaling about 1.3 billion tons. If food waste were a country, it would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases.

Black soldier flies are found all across Singapore. While the adults do not eat as their sole purpose is to mate, the larvae eat almost any organic matter and can stomach up to four times their weight a day. They are capable of converting three tons of food waste into one ton of fertilizers per week.

Mr Darren Ho is the founder of the 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 waste.

"Food waste 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," said Mr Ho.

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

The government works hard to reduce the waste. In February, the Singaporean government pledged 2019 as the year of "zero waste." The Minister for Environment and Water Resources also launched a year-long movement to lower food wastage, encouraging people to order only what they can finish.

However, a citizen told the China Global Television Network that the movement is not binding on people.

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

The Insectta can only get food waste from breweries and soy bean manufacturers due to regulations as of now, but they are finding a way to collect waste food in restaurants.

"Post-consumer waste is something we want to focus on, but right now, regulatory requirements only allow us to turn pre-consumer waste, and we still want to capture the waste and nutrients that we don't eat in a food waste that's only meant for human, turn that into a usable protein to the insects," said Mr Ho. REUTERS