Q&A with Divert CEO Ryan Begin: Preventing food waste with tech and sustainable infrastucture

The bruised banana. The blemished apple. The brown bit at the bottom of that Iceberg lettuce. 

U.S. grocers generate 16 billion pounds of food waste annually, and the U.S. as a whole sends 119 million pounds of food waste to landfills each year. Even though technology has been shifting the way retailers manage inventory, consumer behavior continues to perpetuate the issue.

Waste360 recently connected with Ryan Begin, CEO and founder of Divert, which has been using advanced technology to improve food recovery and create supply chain efficiencies since 2007. 

In 2010, the company partnered with Kroger to build the largest anaerobic digester in the United States. In March 2023, Divert entered a $1 billion infrastructure agreement with Enbridge on the development of food-to-renewable natural gas (RNG) facilities across North America. 

Begin discussed how the food supply chain has evolved in the past 15 years and the challenges of scaling technology solutions to combat food waste and insecurity.