Black soldier flies could be the answer to cutting food waste
THEY are each only 16mm long. But black soldier flies could hold the key to cutting Guernsey’s food waste mountain.
Or more precisely, a colony of the flies chomping their way through it all.
The flies – natives of the southern hemisphere – are highly effective at reducing food waste, according to entrepreneur Roy Tilleard.
As well as helping tackle carbon emissions, he highlighted how the process of the flies eating their way through the waste food also creates animal feed.
Overall, it’s potentially a cheaper option as well.
To prove the worth of his little soldiers, Mr Tilleard has established a colony of the insects in Guernsey.
Working with his son-in-law, Simon Glynn-Riley, the pair are looking after the flies in a highly controlled environment in a vinery building in St Saviour’s.
Picking up the story, the entrepreneur explained that the idea for a colony actually came out of another initiative.
He and his son-in-law are interested in aquaponics – the growing of plants in water, which are fed via the ammonia in the waste products of fish. The plants then clean the water, which goes back to the fish, and it becomes a circular system.
‘Simon said: ‘It’s going to be expensive to feed the fish and for that we need free fish food.’
So he started looking at black soldier flies as a means of creating larvae to feed to the fish.
‘Once we got into this, we got more and more interested in the black soldier flies,’ said Mr Tilleard.
‘You can create the larvae from the black soldier fly eggs to eat the food waste. From that you get a crop of larvae. You also get a very important by-product in fertiliser. We decided we would put our efforts into that.
‘Commercially, the payback period is quicker. And of course it does a lot more for the planet than aquaponics. So, alongside this, we built a pilot plant, both with a fly colony and a larvae processing area.’
This has now progressed to a larger fly colony following discussions with the States waste body to prove to it that food waste can be reduced using black soldier flies – and that it’s not just an experiment.
There have also been visits to the trial plant from politicians and civil servants.
‘We’re at a point where we’re written a 50-page business plan which has been submitted to the States' Trading Board for Guernsey Waste earlier this year.
‘We’re now really waiting from them to come back and say do they want to do it at all, do they want to do a joint venture or do they want us to take all of the food waste. We’re happy to do either.
‘I personally would like it to be a joint venture, because I think that’s a good thing for the island,’ said Mr Tilleard.
