Environment | Foul Problems Require Foul Solutions

WRITTEN BY MDPN. JOHN EUCLID PARREÑO | COLLAGE ART BY MDPN. FRANCIS BALDEMOR

Pretty much every single human being on earth would want to puke their insides out after just a mere sight of rotting leftover meat or a whiff of putrid decomposing fruit when passing by a trash can filled with the nastiness of human food waste. It’s a torment for anyone. But, for people like Noknok—a 52-year-old Passinhon who is living at an approximately 20-meter distance away from a dumpsite— living with the sight and stench of decaying food waste every single day is already a part of his lifestyle.

This year, the United Nations Environment Programme’s 2021 Food Waste Index discovered that an estimated 931 million tons of food end up in trash annually. 61.12% of that falls under the household waste category while foodservice and retail sectors ledgers for a further 26.21% and 12.67% respectively. Moreover, based on per capita, the average global household throws away about 74 kilograms of food each year, a figure that is generally similar across country income groups that highlight the cruciality of global awareness and improvement.

On top of that, food waste that finds itself dumped in landfills emits a massive amount of methane - a significantly stronger greenhouse gas than the notorious carbon dioxide. The overabundance of greenhouse gases like methane and carbon dioxide absorbs infrared radiation and traps heat in the earth’s atmosphere, becoming a catalyst of global warming and climate change. Picture out how much methane could 931 million tons of food waste could produce. It could potentially turn the world into a giant oven, operated by the same people who live in it but do not seem to care. With the disturbing facts and statistics concerning food waste and its global impact, is there even a way to help reduce its effects? Will people in the case of Noknok ever breathe the smell of fresh air anytime soon? Luckily, Shandong Qiaobin Agricultural Technology Company in Jinan, China, might just have found a promising solution that can halt the seemingly inevitable apocalypse brought upon by food waste—cockroaches. Yes. The same cockroaches you see in your household. The same insect that prompts people to grab a can of insect spray every time one is found crawling in the kitchen cupboard. As ironic as it may sound, cockroaches can devour a lot of food in seconds if they are in huge numbers. The agricultural technology company houses a billion—one followed by nine zeros—cockroaches that munch their way into 50 tons of food scraps every day. That means 50 tons of food waste, found itself being digested in an army of gross insects’ abdomen, rather than in a landfill, where they could rot and warm the earth while at it. The process in this industry is remarkable. Food waste is collected in restaurants and then crushed into a disgusting puree and served to the six-legged customers. The roaches thrive in the warm, humid, and dark environment while being served an eat-all-you-can buffet of garbage. Moreover, this environment is also perfect for the cockroaches to raise families as the industry can never have too many mouths to feed, thus making cockroaches a renewable resource driven by food waste. And when the unfortunate time comes when the mommy and daddy roaches die, they are given to farm animals as insects such as roaches are a good source of protein. Aside from the roaches of China, one potential insect here in the Philippines also shows promise in the food waste problem of the world.

In Davao City, Philippines, statistics show that the city has generated at least 600 tons of garbage daily ever since the COVID-19 pandemic started. Determined to convert that amount of trash into treasure, FiveDOL Upcycling Corporation together with the help of the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology starts a program to produce compost and animal feed using black soldier flies. Peter Damary, FiveDOL’s CEO, said that by harnessing the rapid growth of the flies and their capacity to break down kitchen waste, scientists and engineers have, over the last few years, been able to develop an efficient technology to transform large quantities of kitchen waste into insect protein and compost beneficial to agriculture and the environment. In the two-week lifetime of a female black soldier fly, it can lay between 500 to 900 eggs. Once the eggs hatch, the larvae consume and transform large quantities of food waste into compost. While turning food waste into compost, the larvae also stuff themselves with protein, becoming viable alternative feed for chicken or pigs. Given the rapid life cycle of the BSFs, they are also renewable resources driven by food waste like the roaches of China that could potentially put an end to the food waste problem of the world. Lastly, also like the roaches of China, they also donate a huge amount of protein to livestock that could drastically improve the quality of meat in the Philippine meat industry. The thought of cockroaches and flies helping humanity is undeniably absurd, however, Shadong Qiaobin Agricultural Technology Company and FiveDOL Upcycling Corporation beg to disagree. The insects’ progress in their plants and factories proves that even the most ridiculous plan may surprise those who didn’t think it would work, especially those who distrust cockroaches and flies as they are more commonly known to be harbingers of diseases. Unfortunately for some reason, these methods still aren’t adopted widely throughout the globe. But just imagine how it could impact the world in every city or municipality has at least one cockroach or fly facility, no doubt the problems that branch from dumping food waste would eventually vanish into thin air - or rather, into an insect’s belly. Food waste is not just wasting food, it is also stimulating the devastating effects of global warming, and it is also making people like Noknok smell the stench of decay while staying in the comfort of his house. But in these modern times, it is not funny at all to say that the future of the environment lies in the hands—in the six legs rather—of these once-considered pests.

Cockroaches and flies. What a gross way to save the world.