Black Soldier Fly Technology and Sustainability Co-Benefits: A Restaurant-Level Case Study in Taiwan

Restaurant food waste poses a growing management challenge in Taiwan, where traditional disposal pathways—kitchen waste-based pig feeding and centralized incineration—face intensifying regulatory and operational constraints, including a nationwide ban on kitchen waste pig feeding following domestic African Swine Fever outbreaks. Black Soldier Fly (BSF) bioconversion offers a promising decentralized alternative, yet empirical evidence on its implementation in small-scale, commercial food-service settings remains limited. This exploratory single-case study documents an on-site BSF system implemented in an Indian restaurant in Taichung, Taiwan, drawing on semi-structured interviews, direct observation, and operational records collected over six months. Environmental benefits were assessed using a Life-Cycle Thinking framework across the collection–transportation, processing, and residue-management stages, supplemented by a quantitative carbon-avoidance estimate for the collection–transportation stage. The system achieved 65.0% waste-weight reduction and an 18.3 kg/day average processing capacity, avoiding an estimated 1.8–3.5 kg CO2e per eliminated collection trip. The case also demonstrated reinforcing synergies among Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 11, 12, and 13, and an enabling relationship with SDG 15. These findings offer transferable insights into the feasibility and multi-dimensional sustainability co-benefits of restaurant-level BSF adoption, underscoring the value of future multi-site research.