(Bloomberg) — Before you can see it, you can smell it. In a run-down area on the outskirts of Cape Town, trucks are pouring tons of rotting food waste into metal skips, the first step before the concoction is liquidized and then tipped into trays to feed millions of wriggling maggots. Soon, it will be fish food–and also a solution to the persistent problem of methane emissions, a big contributor to climate change. Decomposing garbage in landfills produces about 5% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Many countries have banned organic waste from them, so finding an alternative use for decomposing garbage is a business that’s becoming increasingly attractive.
AgriProtein set up the factory in 2015 to show that garbage-eating insects can be used to produce feed for fish and livestock, and now it receives 15 tons of refuse a day from restaurants and stores around Cape Town. The larvae of black soldier flies that eat it are allowed to grow before being desiccated and turned into meal, which is then sold to fish farms. The mandate to fight climate change is at the heart of the business.
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