Black Soldier to provide speedy solution for garbage management

A speedy and environment friendly mechanism for the Biodegradable Waste Management was implemented jointly by the Government and the private sector in the Sabaragamuwa Province.

Under this mechanism, the Ratnapura Municipal Council and a private sector organisation ‘Aqua Terra’ has implemented a pilot project recently at the Ratnapura Kanadola Waste Recycling Centre.

With this novel method, larvae of a fly generally called ‘Black Soldier’ is used to decompose Biodegradable Waste, leaving the larvae to grow in large numbers in the Biodegradable Waste dumps.

The black soldier fly commonly lives with Biodegradable Waste in many countries. The larvae of this fly are used to produce compost fertiliser and insect repellent solutions.

About fifteen tons of Biodegradable Waste is collected daily at the Kanadola Garbage Recycling Centre at the Ratnapura Municipal Council, and it takes at least forty-five days to decompose in the presence of conventional microorganisms. However, it takes only 14 days to decompose the entire load of garbage at the Kanadola Waste Recycling Centre using the larvae of the fly.

During the recycling of garbage through microorganisms, a considerable quantity of methane gas and wastewater are released into the environment. However, during recycling through this larvae, the methane and wastewater released into the environment are very minimal, project implementers said.

Apart from the use of the larvae as a seedy Biodegradable Waste Management solution, many countries in the world use this fly to produce energy-rich foods since the larvae of this fly are rich in protein. Besides, it is used in the cosmetics manufacturing process as a raw material.

According to sources the larvae are also edible as flour or liquid after certain value additions. Moreover, they are also used in animal husbandry as organic feed for chickens, ducks, pigs, quails and freshwater fish.

The cost for this new method is very little. The organic fertiliser obtained through this method is of high quality. It is significant that there is a huge demand for black soldier fly larvae in foreign countries and therefore it can also be used as a major source of foreign exchange for the country.

While participating in the opening ceremony, the Sabaragamuwa Provincial Governor Champa Janaki Rajarathne said that the government would provide maximum support to make this programme successful. The Governor added that this would be implemented as a public-private partnership project.

“For this, the Government will provide land and Biodegradable Waste, and a contract will be signed to transfer a portion of the profits from this project to the Government. This recycling programme has been estimated at about two hundred thousand rupees. Interested parties for this project have the opportunity to join the pilot project and the government will act as a facilitator,” Governor said.

Source: Daily News