I'm learning about how black soldier flies and insects in general are used to turn organic waste into more insects, which are then harvested for protein-heavy feed for poultry and fish.
A lot of places do waste separation at source but in the absence of that (from my knowledge, it isn't very common in the developing world), we need to develop techniques for sorting the waste.
Without sorting, all waste goes into landfill where biodegradable waste will eventually disintegrate but non-degradable won't, ultimately "sorting" the waste (if you were to excavate it).
Since flies consume organic material, I'm wondering if for mixed waste, a large swarm can also "lick the plastic (or other nondegradables) clean".
Has this been tried as a "sorting" strategy anywhere? Do you see any immediate impracticalities or other reasons why this wouldn't be useful?