WASTE-TO-VALUE TECHNOLOGIES FOR EU CARBON NEUTRALITY BY
2050
OUR PHILOSOPHY
combining ecological and economic sustainability through insect-farming
Unlike conventional manufacturing operations, the circular economy formed by insect farming generates value not only in the form of products for buyers, but also for the suppliers of the organic residues. At the beginning of the value chain, the ecological footprint as well as the disposal costs of the supplying farms are significantly reduced. The raw materials substitute established raw materials and thus also reduce negative consequences of their respective processes.
PROVIDING
SOLUTIONS
“Globally, if food waste could be represented as its own country, it would be the third largest greenhouse gas emitter, behind China and the United States”
– United Nations Environment Programme
FOOD LOSS & WASTE (FLW)
FLW in the EU
EU citizens generate 2.5 billion tons of waste every year. Roundabout 88 million of these are due to food loss and waste.
FLW IN AUSTRIA
Even in a small country like Austria, more than two thousand tons of food is wasted every single day.
GLOBAL CRISIS
In the big picture, 17% of all produced food is simply wasted. This amounts to 1.6 billion tons every year as well as enormous impacts on socioeconomics and ecosystems.
SOURCE OF FLW
food is not only thrown to trash by individuals, but is also lost along the entire supply-chain, starting with agriculture and ending with grocery producers, gastronomy and retail.
Independent organisations such as the UN or Greenpeace have been reporting on food wastage as an acute problem in our society for years or even decades. For the most part, it is associated only with the ethical problems of persistent poverty and global hunger. This in itself justifies a much greater focus on this problem. However, the far-reaching ecological and economic consequences of FLW are often overlooked:
1.6
billion tons of total FLW p.a.
886
billion $ in loss and damage p.a.
9%
of worldwide GHG emissions
88
million tons of total FLW p.a.
143
billion € in loss and damage p.a.
170
million tons of CO2e emitted p.a.
700
thousand tons of total FLW p.a.
2.1
thousand tons wasted per day
1.4
billion € in loss and damage
Reports also differentiate between avoidable waste and unavoidable waste. The latter is largely made up of by-products of food production and processing and thus consists predominantly of waste that is no longer consumable and will therefore continue to remain unused. Yet we are not so sure about that…
CREATING
VALUE
BLACK SOLDIER FLY FARMING
two flies with one stone…
In terms of biological and economic efficiency, nothing even comes close to upcycling organic residues through breeding black soldier flies (BSF) and fattening their larvae. With the creation of previously undreamt-of values for suppliers of organic residues as well as buyers, BSF-farming creates an absolutely unique business model with outstanding advantages:
INPUT-SIDE
highest efficiency in recycling of residual materials
biggest ecological impact and emission-savings in comparison to alternative organic waste management solutions (composting, biogas plant, landfill)
creating value for residual material suppliers by reducing ecological footprints and waste-management cost
largest selection of convertable input streams of all common farming insects
OUTPUT-SIDE
high-quality raw materials for a wide variety of business sectors
substituting common commodities including all of their negative impact to ecosystems
location-independent, regional production of proteins, fats and fertilisers through vertical farming
utilisation of the input-output correlation enables or highest diversity of applications for the produced raw materials
PRESS COVERAGE
ORGANIC TRASH IN THE NEWS
All articles are the intellectual property of the respective publishers.