Clever Approach: Ocean Clean Up and Maggot Protein

Bloomberg TicToc_The Ocean Cleanup 10/27/19 (YouTube Video) 

Boat that picks up plastic from rivers before reaching the oceans. Pretty sweet.

Bloomberg – Leading Maggot Farmer to Expand From Cape Town to California – Antony Sguazzin 10/30/19

The company behind the world’s first industrial-scale maggot farm based on organic waste plans to kick off its international expansion with a plant in California next year, taking advantage of two global problems: a shortage of protein and an abundance of trash.

The plant in Jurupa Valley will be followed by operations in the Netherlands and Belgium, and is part of a drive by AgriProtein and a handful of competitors worldwide to tap into demand for high-grade protein for fish and poultry feed and offer a solution for the unwanted organic waste that cities and farms produce.

“The world is long on waste and short on protein,” Jason Drew, AgriProtein’s chief executive officer, said in an interview.

The California operation will be modeled on the facility in Cape Town, which rears black soldier flies on about 250 metric tons of organic waste daily. The flies’ larvae are then harvested to produce 4,000 metric tons of protein meal a year. At any one time, including eggs, there are 8.4 billion flies in the factory.

The plant also produces 3,500 tons of fatty acid oil and 16,500 tons of frass, or maggot droppings, which is used as fertilizer. 

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