Harnessing the Power of Insects: Tackling the Organic Waste Crisis with Black Soldier Flies
Managing organic waste is an urgent global challenge that requires immediate attention. Approximately 40-70% of organic waste currently ends up in landfills, where it decomposes anaerobically, releasing methane—a potent greenhouse gas far more impactful than carbon dioxide. With the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warning of a looming climate crisis, the need for innovative and sustainable solutions is critical. Developing countries, in particular, struggle with inadequate waste management infrastructure, leading to widespread pollution and health hazards.
However, a shift towards a circular economy, coupled with advancements in synthetic biology, especially through the use of genetically engineered insects like Black soldier flies (BSF; Hermetia illucens) , offers a promising pathway. These flies can transform organic waste into valuable products, providing an efficient and environmentally friendly solution to the organic waste problem while opening new avenues for sustainable industrial processes.
Organic Waste Is a Heavy Duty To Be Worked Upon :
Managing organic waste poses a big worldwide problem. Right now about 40–70% of organic waste ends up in landfills where it's packed to save space. This leads to bacteria breaking down the waste without air creating methane—a greenhouse gas 28 times stronger than carbon dioxide. As a result, the waste industry has an impact on about 5% of yearly CO2-equivalent emissions because of the methane from organic waste in landfills. The ongoing rise in greenhouse gases has prompted the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to warn that we're heading for a climate crisis likely to cross the crucial 1.5 °C global warming mark in 2031. We need policymakers to step in backed by new tech to handle organic waste, to reach zero yearly greenhouse gas emissions. Sustainable waste management is tough in developing countries where public waste services might be limited or not exist at all. People often dump organic waste in the open, which helps spread germs and pests, pollutes drinking and irrigation water, and destroys habitats. Also, a big part of plant matter from food crops isn't edible and people often burn it in the open leading to unsafe air quality.
The circular economy is an economic system that aims to reduce waste and boost resource efficiency. It does this by encouraging the reuse, recycling, and renewal of materials in ongoing cycles. This system offers a hopeful framework to tackle these issues. New tech breakthroughs that expand the range and worth of products that can be renewed from organic waste will motivate more organic waste recycling. This will also give entrepreneurs a chance to add value to organic waste.
Black Solider Fies Are Here: Synthetic biology has the potential ~
Black soldier flies glow red as part of scientists’ work to genetically engineer them at Macquarie University in Sydney. (Source: Google Images )
Synthetic biology could revolutionize our approach to climate change and sustainability by providing essential technological breakthroughs. While microbial synthetic biology has seen more progress, insect synthetic biology shows promise in cleaning up and adding value to organic waste. This involves engineering insects that excel at processing organic waste to serve as a platform for biomanufacturing and bioremediation. This method of insect biomanufacturing could turn organic waste into more valuable products like better-feed industrial biomolecules, and top-quality fertilizer. The global animal feed market is worth about USD 500 billion. The worldwide industrial enzyme and lipid markets are valued at USD 6.95 billion and $13.63 billion USD. The global fertilizer market is worth USD 207 billion.Insects are a promising synthetic biology platform to improve sustainable biomanufacturing. Here, we discuss the opportunities, pros and cons, and how to advance insect biomanufacturing, focusing on black soldier flies.
Australian researchers are working on modifying a common fly type to eat more of our organic trash while making ingredients for products like lubricants, biofuels, and high-quality animal food. Companies already use black soldier flies to eat organic waste, including food scraps, but changing their genes could let their larvae eat more types of waste and produce fats and enzymes in the process. The team from Sydney's Macquarie University wrote a science paper about their hopes for these flies and how they might also lower the amount of methane, a gas that warms the planet when organic waste breaks down. Dr Kate Tepper, who led the study, said, "We're heading for a climate disaster, and trash in landfills gives off methane. We need to stop that ." Dr Maciej Maselko runs a lab at Macquarie University that works on changing animal genes where Tepper has started to modify the flies.
Scientists Kate Tepper and Maciej Maselko at Macquarie University. Their team hopes to have the first genetically engineered flies for use in waste facilities by the end of the year. (Source: Google Images)
Maselko called insects the "next frontier" to tackle the world's waste management issue, which includes about 1bn tonnes of food waste. You can find black soldier flies on every continent except Antarctica. "If you have a compost bin, you have some," Maselko said. The fly larvae can consume twice their body weight, and like other insects, people use their larvae for animal feed. Maselko pointed out that the flies could already handle waste faster than microbes.
Maselko said that genetic engineering gives flies weaknesses – like not being able to fly – that make them unsuitable outside a waste processing facility. The maggots do the work of eating organic waste. Workers harvest the maggots, which then become pupae. A set of engineered flies would also produce enzymes used in animal feeds, textiles, and pharmaceuticals, and fatty compounds to make biofuels and lubricants. Some flies might consume contaminated waste leaving behind poo that could serve as fertilizer. Tepper said engineers can design flies to handle pollutants in several ways. These include breaking pollutants into less toxic or inorganic compounds, turning them into air, or storing some pollutants in their bodies. This leaves clean organic waste behind.
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