Partnership demonstrates the closed loop of Divert’s Circularity Platform, which recovers value from food and beverage products
WEST CONCORD, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Divert, Inc., a circular economy company on a mission to prevent food from being wasted, today announced that its partnership with United States Cold Storage (US Cold), the premier provider of refrigerated warehousing and logistics, processed more than 2.5 million pounds of unsold food and beverage products from seven California facilities in its first 15 months. The material was transformed into renewable energy and fertilizer instead of going to landfill.
The partnership reflects a growing shift among food and beverage brands and their logistics partners to comply with state-level landfill diversion mandates, manage disposals securely, and meet sustainability goals. Divert’s vertically integrated Circularity Platform enables the company to respond flexibly to customer needs and recover multiple value streams from unsold products, treating them as a resource rather than a disposal problem.
Once efforts to sell or donate products are exhausted, US Cold routes them to Divert’s Integrated Diversion & Energy Facility in Turlock, California. There, proprietary High-Recovery Depackaging (HRD) and anaerobic digestion technology convert the material into renewable natural gas (RNG), nutrient-rich agricultural fertilizers, and recovered water. The process keeps value circulating locally and provides US Cold and its customers with the security, documentation and environmental benefits they increasingly expect.
For brands like Oatly, whose products move through US Cold’s network, the partnership extends existing manufacturing sustainability commitments through the end of the supply chain. According to a recent sustainability report, Oatly has already eliminated production waste to landfill and aims to eliminate all waste to landfill (including waste from warehouses) entirely by 2030. Through its partnership with Divert, US Cold supports these extended commitments, handling Oatly’s unsold inventory with the same environmental rigor at every stage.
Distributors commonly face destruction volumes that vary by location, product type, and season. Traditional service models often can’t handle that variability economically, which can be a barrier to sustainable outcomes. Through dynamic pricing and optimized material routing, Divert helped US Cold scale its sustainable destruction program across multiple locations.
“Our customers trust us to be good stewards of their brand, and that responsibility doesn’t end when products can’t be sold,” said Sara Cook, Sustainable Development Manager, United States Cold Storage. “In building a flexible program around our operational needs, Divert has enabled us to deliver secure product destruction without sacrificing sustainable outcomes, giving brands like Oatly confidence that unsold product is being handled with the same environmental care they’ve built into their own operations.”
As cited in a recent case study by Divert, during the first 15 months of the partnership, material processed from seven US Cold facilities in California resulted in:
- More than 2.5 million pounds of unsold food and beverage products securely processed
- Over 8,500 MMBtu of renewable natural gas created
- ~450 metric tons of CO2 equivalent emissions avoided, equal to about 40 trips around the equator for an average gasoline-powered vehicle
For Oatly specifically, the partnership processed 126,000 pounds of product, generating nearly 80 MMBtu of RNG and avoiding about 4 metric tons of CO2e, equal to roughly 10,000 miles driven.
Divert’s Turlock facility delivers renewable natural gas to the pipeline and provides fertilizer and soil amendments to partners like Western Milling and Crème Brulee Farming Co., supporting local farms across the region to grow new food. At full capacity, the facility can annually produce enough renewable energy to power more than 4,000 homes, generate enough liquid nitrogen fertilizer to support 112 million pounds of strawberries, produce enough soil amendment to treat up to 2,000 acres of farmland, and offset 23,000 metric tons of CO2e.
Divert has over 7,800 existing customer locations across the food supply chain that are actively recovering value from its nationwide Circularity Platform. With a USDA-estimated 930 refrigerated warehouses locations nationally, Divert is well positioned to expand across this important sector.
“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,” said Ben Kuethe Oaks, SVP, Commercial at Divert. “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.”
Divert is a portfolio company of Ara Partners, a global private equity, infrastructure, and energy firm focused on decarbonizing the industrial economy. To learn more about Divert please click here.
About Divert
Divert is a circular economy company on a mission to prevent food from being wasted through nationwide infrastructure and innovative technologies. Founded in 2007, the company provides an end-to-end solution that leverages data to prevent waste, facilitates edible food recovery to provide to people in need, and transforms unsold food products into renewable energy to power communities and fertilizers to enrich local soils. Through this integrated approach to reducing wasted food–Prevent, Provide, Power®–Divert works with customers across the U.S. to reduce wasted food and positively impact people and the environment. For more information on Divert, Inc., please visit www.divertinc.com.
About Ara Partners
Founded in 2017, Ara Partners is a global private markets firm focused on decarbonizing the industrial economy. The firm invests in the middle market across three strategies: Private Equity, Infrastructure, and Energy. Ara scales commercially demonstrated decarbonization solutions, supports the businesses and infrastructure that enable their adoption, and reduces emissions at the source across the conventional energy value chain. Its model combines investing, market and policy expertise, project execution and operational optimization, and rigorous carbon accounting to reduce emissions economically and unlock growth at industrial scale. Ara operates from Houston, Boston, Dublin and Washington D.C., and, as of September 30, 2025, had approximately $6.6 billion in assets under management. To learn more, visit www.arapartners.com.
About United States Cold Storage
United States Cold Storage (US Cold) is the premier provider of refrigerated warehousing and logistics, delivering industry-leading solutions across more than 40 facilities nationwide. Guided by its promise to be the Best in Cold, US Cold puts people first, leverages innovation, and builds partnerships that keep the cold chain moving. For more than 125 years, US Cold has been trusted by America’s leading food companies to protect, preserve, and deliver frozen and refrigerated goods safely and efficiently. With a focus on sustainability, service, and operational excellence, US Cold continues to lead the industry into the future of cold chain logistics.
Contacts
Divert Media Contact
Desmond Davis
Public Relations
(443) 465-4675
desmond.davis@hahn.agency
Read the Article on Business Wire: Read More Posted By OffshoreSource
