GROWING SUPERWORMS FOR THE FUTURE

Several young scientists have a rotten agenda: They are cultivating maggots that will be sold as animal feed and which can dispose of food waste more efficiently. puts on gumboots and gloves to check out the noble initiative in Kota Samarahan

THOUSANDS of maggots crawling around a decomposing carcass or animal faeces is definitely not a pretty sight. However, Tan Pei Chin views it differently. She believes maggots are amazing creatures that can end food waste.

This belief led to the setting up of the “Worming Up” farm two years ago in Jalan Stakan, Kota Samarahan, with the purpose of feeding and breeding maggots.

Worming Up is a social project that aims to reduce organic waste, raise awareness and educate the public on how to recycle leftover food and bring them back into the ecosystem.

Tan, a 24-year-old biotechnology graduate, works at this farm; a place that stinks of rotten food. The premises has nothing much to offer. It is the size of half a football field and has only a food steamer, a lot of empty paint buckets and two areas covered with netting.

Tan, a Warming Up co-founder, says Black Soldier Fly maggots can break down food waste, such as vegetables, fruits and animals (meat).

The farm also breeds Superworms, larvae of the Zophobas morio species, which functions similarly to maggots.

“We will harvest them and sell them to pet shops, reptile breeders, and poultry and fish farms as animal feed,” Tan says.

She says the money from the sales will be used to run the farm as well as educational initiatives and awareness programmes.

She says the farm earns enough money to sustain its operations, but it is more focused on introducing and creating awareness of the method.

“The maggots that we breed are different from those found in rubbish and at dump sites. We are breeding the species from the wild,” she says, adding that they are often found in the jungle, usually on dead animals or faeces.

“We feed them (the maggots) with food waste collected from restaurants, markets and school canteens. They eat and recover the protein and fat left in the waste,” she tells the

during a visit to the farm recently.

The farm collects leftovers from 12 locations where traders and operators have agreed to throw organic waste into buckets provided. The farm crew will collect and transport the buckets to the farm, where the waste will go through a segregation process. Each day, an average of 100kg of food waste is collected.

“Although we have told them to separate organic waste, sometimes we receive plastic items. But, it is okay.

“Education and awareness take time,” says the five-feet-tall Tan, who looks comfortable in her black rubber boots.

She says the food waste will be sterilised in a food steamer, which has a capacity of 70kg, before it is used to feed the bugs.

Maggots will be fed for two weeks, while Superworms must be fed for three months.

Some of the larvae, Tan says, will be kept at the farm to produce eggs. Once the maggots enter the pupal stage, they will be transferred to an area called the “greenhouse”, which is covered with netting and designed for mating.

Pupae in the green house are ready to mate as they enter the final stage of the metamorphosis cycle.

“The final stage, which is the adult stage, is when the pupae turn into a fly. Each fly can lay up to 500 eggs, and it will die after that,” Tan says, adding that the lifespan of a Black Soldier Fly is about 40 days, from an egg to the adult stage.

A Superworm, however, will turn into a beetle when it is about three months old. The beetle will oviposit eggs continuously throughout its adult stage, which lasts about five months.

“The beetle does not need to be placed in the greenhouse as it can lay eggs, about 25 eggs each time, in the container,” Tan says.

Worming Up founder Jeff Wee Hung Yee, a resource chemistry graduate, says the idea took root after he participated in the “Stay Green” project in Mauritius two years ago.

The six-week programme had inspired and motivated him to do something to conserve the environment.

“I wanted to do something to save the Earth and make this world a better place for the future generation. So, I worked on the idea after I returned from Mauritius and Worming Up was set up months later (in the same year),” Wee says.

With his chemistry background, researches and studies as well as his deep interest, Wee secured a start-up fund of RM30,000 from the Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC) to kick-start his plan.

The 25-year-old says the maggots and Superworms can eat very fast, adding that 1kg of larvae can reduce 1kg of food waste.

“This is the minimum amount of food waste that can be reduced. We are applying our method to increase the reduction volume.

“They can actually reduce (eat) more than what they can in nature.”

If food waste ends up in a landfill, it will take about 40 days for it to completely decompose, and all its nutrients will be trapped there and will not re-enter the biosphere.

By feeding the food waste to maggots and Superworms, Wee