Sustainable waste management using black soldier fly larva: a review

Treatment of biodegradable waste using the black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) is an emerging waste treatment technology attracting entrepreneurial activities around the globe, mainly because the larvae grown on the waste have the potential to become starting material for several commercial products such as animal feed, biodiesel, chitin as a biopolymer, and soil fertilizer. Insect-based waste treatment technology offers a financially viable solution for the solid waste problem mitigation, which otherwise has been an arduous task for many parts of the globe, especially for the developing nations. Although considered a better alternative than other well-established technologies such as composting or anaerobic digestion, the technology is still in its infancy. The researchers and entrepreneurs who wish to gain an insight into and develop the BSFL-based waste processing technology further, require to have a holistic understanding of the various ways in which the performance of BSFL technology can be enhanced and its scaling-up can be formulated to solve the waste management problems in community- and city-level. This review article is a collection of state-of-the-art knowledge on various aspects related to the technology development for full-scale utilization for commercialization purposes, such as the artificial rearing techniques of BSF, waste stabilization performances of the BSFL at different environmental conditions, and the effects of micronutrients and associated microorganism communities.