Upcycling Takeout Waste with Black Soldier Fly Larvae

• Grace Chen, Environmental Science, UC Berkeley

• Michael Crossley, Entomology and Wildlife Conservation, University of Delaware

Buildup of non-biodegradable waste in landfills has become a more prominent issue with our reliance on single-use plastics. To combat this problem, plastic is being replaced with more biodegradable options, such as compostable materials. At the same time, improvements to waste management have also occurred through the increased use of black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) as composters. BSFL’s efficiency in breaking down organic waste in a short amount of time makes them excellent composters. For my experiment, I want to take both of these methods and observe if black soldier fly larvae are capable of breaking down compostable food containers. The larvae were given three different food treatments that were Gainesville diet (a mixture of alfalfa, corn, and wheat) as the control, compostable containers, and a combination of both. Larvae had difficulty developing on the container-only diet as they were significantly shorter and lighter compared to the other treatments. Larvae on Gainesville diet were the most developed as they were the heaviest and had the most larva advancing to the pupal stage. While larvae on the combined diet achieved a similar length, they consumed less food, weighed less, and had fewer prepupae than larvae on the Gainesville diet. Overall, while larvae do have the ability to break down compostable containers, these containers alone lack sufficient nutrition for BSFL to grow and complete development. For BSFL to recycle these materials, adding nutritious food seems essential to obtain optimal results. More studies will be needed to see which materials in compostable containers can and can’t be consumed to help improve the decomposing ability compostable containers have on natural composters and avoid accumulation of waste.