In Colombia, hungry beetle larvae fight the accumulation of garbage August 14, 2024

The larvae of the Hercules beetle (Dynastes hercules) can reach almost the length of an ordinary brick (Luis ACOSTA)

By AFP - Agence France Presse

In Colombia, hungry beetle larvae fight the accumulation of garbage

David SALAZAR

In the remote highlands of Colombia, beetles are the secret weapon in an innovative project to combat the growing problem of garbage accumulation.

Here, the larvae of the enormous rhinoceros beetle eat piles of organic waste that would otherwise end up in polluting landfills.

But that's not all. The larvae's poop is collected and sold as fertilizer and, when the beetles reach adulthood, they are sold as pets to customers as far away as Japan.

“The beetles have the answer” to waste disposal, said environmental and health engineer German Viasus, who runs the project in the central region of Boyaca, Colombia.

The concept is simple, inexpensive and, Viasus believes, an example that would be easy to replicate in other parts of the world.

Every week, his facility in the city of Tunja receives around 15 tons of waste generated by around 40,000 inhabitants of the surrounding municipalities.

This waste is piled up as food for the voracious larvae, which can grow to the length of a human hand.

Other larvae are kept in tanks where they consume leachate - a fluid produced by the decomposition of organic waste that can be harmful to ecosystems.

- 'Cutting edge' - A

Colombia's official estimates are that the South American country produces around 32,000 tons of waste a day - more than 2,600 school buses - about half of which is organic.

Worldwide, around 11.2 billion tons of waste are generated each year, according to the UN.

With Tunja's landfill rapidly approaching its end date, Viasus' larvae offer an alternative solution to a major headache.

The engineer came up with the idea by chance when, in 2000, after the failure of a similar project with earthworms, he found beetle larvae feeding on the contents of a garbage bag.

The ones he has today are all descendants of those first offspring.

The larvae live for around four months before they begin their metamorphosis and acquire their characteristic hard shell. The beetles have a lifespan that varies from a few months to around three years.

At the moment, Viasus sells them to customers in countries such as Germany, Canada, France, the United States, and Japan, where they are popular pets.

Some find homes in Colombia, where many see them as good luck charms.

To avoid the fees associated with payments in yen, euros, and dollars, Viasus teamed up with cryptocurrency wizard Carmelo Campos to develop a digital currency called Kmushicoin, after the Japanese name for a horned beetle.

Today, in Tunja, but also cities like Bogotá and Medellín, a few businesses accept the currency as payment.

“The world is so polluted that we're suffocating from this garbage,” electronics salesman Jefferson Bastidas told AFP in Tunja, saying that he joined the initiative to help the environment and put his business at the ‘cutting edge of technology’.

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