Food waste in.
Two products out.
Nothing wasted.
Syntects is a closed-loop British insect farm. We convert UK food waste into live Calci Worms and Flytiliser fertiliser. No inputs are wasted. No outputs go to landfill.
A circular economy that actually works
Most businesses describe themselves as circular. Very few are. Syntects is genuinely, operationally circular — not as a marketing aspiration but as a mechanical reality of how the farm works.
UK surplus food and spent grain from local producers arrives at our Yoxall grow rooms. Black soldier fly larvae consume it over 7–10 days. When harvested, the larvae produce two separate product streams: the larvae themselves (sold as live Calci Worms for chickens) and the frass (collected, dried and sold as Flytiliser insect frass fertiliser). The frass returns nutrients to British soil via the gardens and allotments of our customers. Those gardens produce food. Food waste returns to farms like ours.
Why black soldier flies specifically?
BSF larvae are uniquely suited to sustainable agriculture for several reasons. They are among the most efficient bioconverters known — capable of reducing organic waste by 50–70% of its original volume while converting a significant portion into high-quality protein and lipids. They produce negligible greenhouse gas emissions during their larval phase. They require no antibiotics, no growth hormones, no pesticides, and no purpose-grown feed crops.
The adult black soldier fly is a harmless, non-biting fly that does not feed as an adult — it lives only to mate and reproduce. It poses no food safety or hygiene risk in the way that houseflies do. In a well-managed insect farm, the entire operation is self-contained and odour-controlled.
Compared to what we replace
Most live insects sold to UK chicken keepers and reptile owners are imported — primarily from continental Europe and Asia. The carbon footprint of transporting live organisms under temperature control over long distances is significant, and the traceability of farming practices is essentially zero.
Most insect frass fertilisers sold in the UK are made from beetle or mealworm frass. Neither of these is a by-product of a dual-output circular farm — the insects are raised specifically for frass production, with the larvae themselves discarded or sold separately. Flytiliser is a true by-product: the frass is what remains after the larvae are harvested for another purpose. Nothing is created to be wasted.
Want to support British insect farming?
Every subscription is a direct investment in our British circular farm.