Waste-to-Insect Protein and Fertiliser: A multi-technology industrial organic waste solution

Last updated on 25 November 2025

Background Information

The food and beverage industry in Kenya is one of the most polluting manufacturing sectors in the region, producing large quantities of organic factory waste with insufficient controls on disposal, causing leachate into soils and water and resulting in GHG emissions. To reduce this flow of factory waste and promote circularity in the food and beverage industry, TakaTaka Solutions and Chanzi Ltd have partnered to pilot an innovative solution in Nairobi and Mombasa, Kenya, which incorporates three complementary organic waste processing models: Black Soldier Fly (BSF) larvae, biochar and compost.

TakaTaka Solutions is the largest waste management and recycling company in Kenya – operating through collection, sorting, processing and recycling – and serves over 20 factory and corporate clients as well as 20,000 households, while Chanzi Ltd is an established sustainable protein company that uses BSF larvae to convert food waste into nutritious protein for animal feed. Both have brought their respective capabilities together in this pilot project to scale their operations of intercepting and processing waste coming from the manufacturing sector.

TakaTaka Solutions currently works on-site with some of the largest food and beverage manufacturers in Kenya to sort remove and process their organic waste. The sorted waste streams are processed off-site, at TakaTaka Solution’s and Chanzi’s facilities, and upcycled into useful outputs for the food and beverage industry value chain through:

Input as feed for BSF larvae, which are in turn processed into high-protein animal feed, with the frass (larvae excrement) as by-product. The BSF larvae production is led by Chanzi who have facilities in Kenya and Tanzania. Research partners, German Biomass Institute Leipzig, are also conducting applied experiments to optimise BSF yield and breadth of processable feedstocks.
Input to a pyrolysis process for conversion into biochar at Chanzi’s facility which in turn has value as a stand-alone product, as an input to the BSF production to control ammonia content, and combined with frass from the BSF comprises a high value product marketed to agricultural companies for carbon sequestering and a nitrogen rich soil improvement. The methane and heat produced as pyrolisis by-products will be used in Chanzi’s internal circular processes for BSF larvae production.
Composting of the remaining material unable to be processed by BSF or pyrolysis at TakaTaka Solutions’ facilities for output into affordable, environmentally-friendly fertiliser that can be used in local agriculture.

The pilot offers affordable and responsible alternatives to the conventional disposal of organic waste by manufacturers as well as demonstrating a long-term commercially sustainable case for on-site sorting and collection. The value added by-products from this project are expected to be of high value and significantly cheaper than currently used alternatives, specifically frass fertiliser and compost over synthetic fertiliser alternatives, BSF feed over current alternative fish meal, and biochar as a new market for soil enhancement. By combining on-site collection and sorting with off-site processing, opportunity exists for the pilot’s scalability as well as for small-scale businesses to be involved in the distribution of products. The pilot project aims to to divert 4,800 tonnes organic waste per year, demonstrating the commercial viability of the technologies on the basis of these market opportunities and preventing the release of diverse organic waste into the environment.

Photo Credit: TakaTaka Solutions

Updates

Increased Organic Waste Processing:
The Nairobi site is operating at full scale, while the expansion to Mombasa is well underway. The project has diverted ~31,000 tonnes of organic waste, achieving a tenfold increase in capacity since its inception. From this, the project produced ~2,000 tonnes of compost, ~400 tonnes of BSF larvae, ~477 tonnes of BSF frass and ~240 tonnes of biochar.

Innovative Technologies:

The 4th iteration of the pyrolysis plant prototype was completed and is fully operational to process converting Grade C organic waste into biochar.
Surplus heat from the pyrolysis plant is used to dry BSF larvae, significantly reducing the need for organic waste for drying.
The biochar produced through the project after a series of trials now meets World Biochar Certification, which allows the project to proceed with carbon credit registration.
The pilot has developed portable growhouses to address the challenges with access to land for BSF breeding.

Strategic Partnerships:
The project collaborates with over 26 facilities for organic waste collection in Nairobi and Mombasa. The facilities include shopping centres, manufacturers, residential estates, hotels, businesses, schools and markets.

Offtake market development:
The application of frass is being demonstrated with small scale farmers in Kiambu County. There is ongoing engagement for the offtake of BSF larvae, at a large scale.

GESI: The pilot employs over 103 people, of which 59 are women.