Pig manure treatment with housefly (Musca domestica) rearing – an environmental life cycle assessment

The largest portion of a product’s environmental impacts and costs of manufacturing and use results from decisions taken in the conceptual design phase long before its market entry. To foster sustainable production patterns, applying life cycle assessment in the early product development stage is gaining importance. Following recent scientific studies on using dipteran fly species for waste management, this paper presents an assessment of two insect-based manure treatment systems. Considering the necessity of manure treatment in regions with concentrated animal operations, reducing excess manure volumes with the means of insects presents a potentially convenient method to combine waste reduction and nutrient recovery. An analytical comparison of rearing houseflies on fresh and pre-treated pig manure is reported with reference to agricultural land occupation, water and fossil depletion potential. Based on ex-ante modelled industrial scale rearing systems, the driving factors of performance and environmenta...