The recycling of organic waste worldwide is not effective, which leads to water pollution and loss of potential crop fertilizers. Available resources have to be used more efficiently as the world population increases. An innovative solution is to use insects for the management of organic waste. Here, we used black soldier fly to convert organic waste into animal feed protein, as fly larvae, and plant fertilizer, as compost residue. A continuous fly reactor was monitored for 9 weeks. We analyzed physicochemical and microbial parameters, and we evaluated the sanitary risk. Results show 55.1 % of material degradation and 11.8 % of biomass conversion based upon total solids. We observed higher levels of N and P in the treatment residue than in the inflow material. Results also show a lower concentration of Salmonella spp. and viruses. Compost treatment with black soldier fly is therefore an efficient system for nutrient recycling.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.