We usually try to keep insects far away from our food—but some companies in China are now serving cockroaches an all-they-can-eat buffet. It’s an innovative solution to get rid of leftovers, as the country’s massive population produces thousands of tons of food waste daily, and the amount has become too much for landfills to accommodate. At a plant run by Shandong Qiaobon Agricultural Technology Co. (one of several similar facilities in China), a billion cockroaches are kept in humid rooms to ensure that they remain healthy and hungry. They chew through about 50 tons of kitchen waste a day—roughly the weight of seven adult elephants. And once the cockroaches die, they can be turned into fertilizer, food for livestock, or an ingredient in medicine and beauty products. As the company’s chairwoman, Li Hongyi, told Reuters, “It’s like turning trash into resources.”