Interested in practical aspects of Black Soldier Fly (BSF) waste processing?

As BSF has become mainstream as an exciting way to treat organic waste, we receive more and more inquiries with questions on “what shall I” and “how shall I”. Academic journal articles seldom give enough easily digestible answers for practitioners, interested in starting or already operating a BSF facility.

For this purpose a practical knowledge hub webpage has been established which contains information all around BSF waste processing in a hopefully easy and practical format for people “in the field”.

The website is structured according to categories of knowledge:

• Overall Guidance
• Operating a BSF biowaste processing facility: Most prominent here is the step-by-step guidebook, available in English, Indonesian and Chinese. A second edition of this book is planned for publication in June 2021.
• The economics of BSF biowaste processing: This links to an online cost calculator and also allows download of a excel-based cost-revenue tool and its manual.
• Managing a BSF nursery
• Substrates for feeding BSF larvae: Here we also provide a link to the “substrate database” which gives information on suitability of substrate and expect output of larvae.
• BSF larvae refining and products: This includes factsheets on different products and how to make them.
• Using and Marketing BSFL products: Here we include results from market studies and information on packaging and marketing of BSF products. Also we show results when feeding BSFL to pet birds and fish.
• Safety considerations
• Greenhouse gas emissions
• Sustainability of insect products: links to work conducted by our close partner Prof. Mathys of ETHZ on sustainability assessments of BSF
• Other key readings and sources for practical information: Finally this last section contains links to other relevant BSF sites as well as other comprehensive books on BSF.

Putting together much of this practical information was possible thanks to the SIBRE (Sustainability of Insect-Based Recycling Enterprises) research project funded by SwissRe Foundation with the objective to generate knowledge and tools around BSF waste processing for use by small & medium enterprises and municipalities. Its focus was set predominantly on the economic perspectives and developing standard protocols for products derived from BSF larvae and testing these in the Indonesian context.

Contact: Christian Zurbrügg