Divert recently revealed that its partnership with United States Cold Storage (US Cold) processed more than 2.5 million lb. of unsold food and beverage products from seven California facilities during its first 15 months, converting the material into renewable natural gas (RNG), agricultural fertilizer, and recovered water.

The company, which operates a Circularity Platform focused on recovering value from food and beverage products, uses its Integrated Diversion & Energy Facility in Turlock, California, to process material routed by US Cold after efforts to sell or donate products are exhausted. Divert uses high-recovery depackaging and anaerobic digestion technology to convert the material into multiple recovered resources.

The partnership helps US Cold and its customers manage unsold products while providing documentation and environmental benefits. Divert used dynamic pricing and optimized material routing to help US Cold scale its sustainable destruction program across multiple locations with varying destruction volumes based on location, product type, and season.

Divert's Turlock facility sends RNG to the pipeline and provides fertilizer and soil amendments to partners, including Western Milling and Crème Brulee Farming Co. The facility can produce enough renewable energy at full capacity to power more than 4,000 homes annually, along with fertilizer and soil amendments for agricultural use.

“The impacts we've generated with US Cold and its customers in California are a great example of the closed loop our Circularity Platform creates,” Ben Kuethe Oaks, SVP of commercial at Divert, said. “Our platform allows us to deliver results like these across our national footprint, supporting customers across the food value chain—from CPG brands, to logistic partners, to retailers—as they navigate source reduction, waste diversion, and circularity goals.” 

What this means for the trucking industry

For refrigerated logistics operations, the partnership shows how unsold food moving through cold-storage networks can be managed after traditional sale or donation options are exhausted. US Cold's ability to route material from multiple facilities to a centralized recovery operation also gives logistics providers a way to incorporate disposal and sustainability requirements into broader supply chain operations.