Âé¶¹´«Ã½

Technology

Recycling maggots

By Barry Fox

11 March 2000

Paul Oliver of Texas has found the perfect way to make organic compost from
municipal waste, and feed animals at the same time (WO 99/42559). The refuse is
spread thinly and seeded with fly larvae, which binge on the humid, putrescent
waste for a few days, making compost. The maggots are removed from the compost
by shining infrared lamps on the waste—but from one side only. This makes
the larvae uncomfortable, so they crawl to the opposite side, out of the waste
and onto a conveyor belt which dumps them directly into a fish pond or hen
house.…

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