Initiative in Nairobi's Mukuru slums uses fly lavae to tackle food waste

Food waste building up and blocking routes is a major issue in Nairobi's Mukuru slums.

Lacking a system to dispose of it, much waste is left outside, trapping stagnant water that would otherwise run off.

But some locals have come up with a new project using fly larvae to break down the discarded food.

According to some experts, the fact that residents don’t tend to sort their waste is part of the issue.

Ephantus Kung’u, an entomologist at Akiba Mashinani Trust, says "the people tend to throw (their waste away), they don't categorize their waste so they tend to put organic waste in plastic bags, then they just litter and this waste in the organic bag will not decompose inside there, so it just ends up clogging."

According to experts, the initiative reduces plastic waste, as well as greenhouse gases such as methane and carbon dioxide.

"To eliminate that need for putting organic waste into plastic bags and other plastic containers, that is why we came up with the BSF, black soldier fly units, that tend to consume more organic waste and solve that issue of organic waste in the street," Kung'u says.

Bernadette Kosgei, an agronomist and trainer at Miramar International College, adds that "the waste that would have alternatively been left around to decompose and release a lot of greenhouse gases - the methane, the carbon dioxide - that would have otherwise escaped into the air and caused global warming, we are able to sequester that carbon through the black soldier fly. So we convert it into protein and that again goes back and is used as animal feeds."

Another advantage of the programme is that the waste ultimately creates animal feed and affordable fertiliser.

"With organic fertilizers I am able to save about sixty percent of the amount I used to go and buy the inorganic fertilizers from the agro shops,'' Moses Aswani, an organic farmer in Mukuru Slums, says.

Launched last year, the initiative’s goal is to cut the area’s food waste by up to 70 percent.