#180: From Food Waste to Renewable Energy with Divert

In this episode of Earthlings 2.0, we speak with Ben Kuethe Oaks, Senior Vice President, Commercial at Divert, about building a more circular approach to food waste. Divert works with grocery retailers and other food businesses to track unsold food, prevent waste, increase food donations, and process food that can no longer be eaten through anaerobic digestion.Check out our previous episodes on food waste and agriculture:#98 – Beyond Organic: Understanding Regenerative Agriculture with UnderstandingAg#65 – A Fresh Outlook on Fruit Logistics with RYP Labs#22 – The Land of the Lost Food with Lisa JohnsonKey Points:Preventing food waste starts with understanding where it happens – Divert collects data on unsold food from individual stores and shares those insights with retailers, helping them identify trends, improve ordering and merchandising, increase donations, and ultimately prevent more food from becoming waste.Food that can't be donated can still become a valuable resource – Divert uses proprietary de-packaging technology and anaerobic digestion to process unsold food that can no longer be eaten, capturing methane to generate renewable energy and recovering nutrients for use as fertilizer or soil amendments.Building alternatives to landfills can help create a more circular food system – Ben explains that limited infrastructure has historically made it difficult to manage commercial food waste at scale. Divert is expanding integrated diversion and energy facilities that give food businesses another option while generating data to help prevent future waste.Ben Kuethe Oaks, Senior Vice President, Commercial at Divert, LinkedInLisa Ann Pinkerton, Earthlings 2.0 Host, CEO of Technica Communications, CEO of PRVIEW, Founder of Women in Cleantech and Sustainability, LinkedIn 🚀 Calling all Earthlings…&nbsp;&nbsp;Visit our website for more episodes!Sign up to our newsletter for the latest news on the most exciting technology and research shaping our futures!&nbsp;We want to learn more about you! It’ll take just a few moments to complete our survey. Thank you for helping us make your listening experience the best it can be!Are you new to Earthlings 2.0 and don’t know where to get started? Check out our Life at 3C episode on our websiteThanks for tuning in! If you like what we’re doing over at Earthlings 2.0, you can support us by heading over to our Patreon Page.Let’s stay connected! Follow Earthlings 2.0 Socials for the latest updates and news:&nbsp;Follow us on LinkedInFollow us on Instagram&nbsp;Follow us on our Facebook PageFollow us on X&nbsp;Thanks to <a href="https://resourcelabs.co/" rel=