Thousands of tonnes of food waste from more than 200 Woolworths stores will be diverted from landfill and turned into livestock feed and fertiliser by maggots at a new $3.5 million waste facility built by Canberra start-up Goterra.

Backed by Mike Cannon-Brookes’ Grok Ventures, Goterra developed modular robotic insect farms filled with black soldier fly larvae, capable of processing five tonnes of food waste a day which is then turned into livestock feed and sold to farmers.