Co-Written by Thierry Giron, Dustie Yang and Mark Villaflor
Photos by Dustie Yang
Palawan saw nearly 2 million tourists in 2019. On average, each tourist creates half a kilo of food waste per day. Of these food wastes, most end up either in a ground creating methane gas, burnt or given to pig farmers along with all the potential associated pathogens.
While the complexity of the waste management crisis in El Nido posits difficulty for local government institutions to strike a balance between socio-cultural aspects, economic factors, and environmental situation in resolving the issue, Dustie and Thierry, co-founders of Kalawili, a permaculture farm in El Nido Palawan, found an ecological hero in what most people would consider a nuisance. Their solution, the Black Soldier Fly (BSF).
Major towns in the region of Southeast Asia are relying more on the larvae of Black Soldier Fly in eliminating food wastes -a method developed, tested and proven for over a decade today. The Black Soldier Fly is native of the Philippines and found near food wastes and/or manure. It can be raised under controlled conditions. Black Soldier flies are made to lay their eggs inside large insectariums. Hatched eggs yields large quantities of larvae, called maggots.
Unlike the traditional composting which cannot digest food wastes due to high nitrogen content and vermicomposting which requires wastes to be pre-composted, the BSF larvae, can effectively digest not only fruit, vegetables, meat and fish wastes but also animal manure and human feces. Regular composting and vermicomposting take 2 to 3 months to digest food wastes; while, the BSF larvae can eliminate the same amount of waste in just 12 days.
Located at Villa Libertad near the Lio Beach estate, Kalawili sits on a 7-hectare land that breeds and harvests BSF for the past 2 years. Three separate insectariums house thousands of Black Soldier Flies. These are where the flies mate every day and where female flies lay their eggs. Every 2 days, staff of Kalawili collects the BSF eggs. It takes another week for the eggs to hatch and for the larvae to grow bigger. After which, larvae are transferred in custom larvarium bins where they are fed with locally collected organic wastes. For every 150kg of organic waste, about 30kg of pupae and 20kg of earth fertilizer are produced.
Kalawili has been working with selected partners in El Nido and Lio Beach Estates to demonstrate the feasibility of this organic waste management system. Not only is it very eco-friendly, it also requires little space and doesn’t smell bad. In addition, it has an output product that can be sold as a protein meal replacement for chicken, ducks, pigs, and fish thereby reducing fish-based animal protein feed.
As the problems of organic residues, its associated pollution and risks of pathogens continue to grow, Kalawili hopes restaurants and hotels in Palawan will find the BSF waste management solution an elegant, safe and eco-friendly way to turn unwanted wastes into valuable resources.Find out more at website www.kalawili.org or on Kalawili’s Facebook page.
