Divert, Inc., a circular economy company focused on preventing food waste and recovering valuable resources, has announced new organic designations for two of its food-derived liquid fertilizers. The development strengthens the company’s efforts to create a closed-loop food system in which nutrients and other resources recovered from unsold food can be returned to agriculture rather than being sent to landfills.
The new designations apply to Divert’s 6-0-0 Organic ammonium liquid fertilizer and 7-0-0 Organic ammonium liquid fertilizer. The 6-0-0 Organic product has been OMRI Listed® for use in organic food production under standards established by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Program. It is also registered as an Organic Input Material with the California Department of Food and Agriculture, or CDFA.
Divert’s 7-0-0 Organic ammonium liquid fertilizer has likewise received registration as an Organic Input Material with the CDFA. The company is also pursuing an OMRI listing for the product, which would further expand its potential use within organic agricultural production.
The announcements represent another step in Divert’s broader strategy to transform food waste into useful agricultural and energy resources. Rather than treating unsold food as a disposal problem, the company’s approach is designed to recover materials that can support new production and reduce the amount of organic waste ultimately sent to landfills.
Building a Closed-Loop Food System
The newly designated fertilizers are part of Divert® Food-Derived Fertilizers, a portfolio of agricultural products developed through the company’s Circular Infrastructure Platform. The platform is designed to recover resources from unsold food that can no longer be donated and redirect those resources toward beneficial uses.
Divert’s current Food-Derived Fertilizers portfolio includes several products designed for different agricultural applications:
- Procyclos™ 6-0-0 Organic – Ammonium Liquid Fertilizer, which is OMRI Listed® and CDFA Registered.
- Procyclos™ 7-0-0 Organic – Ammonium Liquid Fertilizer, which is CDFA Registered and undergoing the OMRI listing process.
- Procyclos™ CST 1-0.5-0 – Conventional Solid Soil Amendment, designed to provide nutrients and organic material for soil applications.
- Procyclos™ AMS 7-0-0 – Conventional Ammonium Sulfate Liquid Fertilizer, providing an additional conventional fertilizer option.
Together, the products demonstrate Divert’s effort to develop multiple pathways for returning nutrients recovered from food waste to agricultural production.
Ryan Begin, CEO and co-founder of Divert, said food that might otherwise be disposed of in landfills can instead be transformed into renewable energy and nutrients that ultimately return to the food system. He also highlighted the economic importance of developing domestic sources of agricultural inputs and energy at a time when fertilizer and energy costs remain elevated.
According to Begin, Divert’s Circular Infrastructure Platform is designed to make this type of circular model viable at national scale. The objective is not simply to reduce food waste, but to establish infrastructure capable of consistently recovering useful resources from the large volumes of unsold food generated throughout the food system.
Turning Unsold Food Into Agricultural Inputs
At the center of Divert’s approach are its Integrated Diversion & Energy Facilities. These facilities process unsold food that is no longer suitable for donation and recover resources that could otherwise be lost through disposal.
The model gives food retailers and other organizations a way to manage unavoidable food waste while creating opportunities to recover nutrients, water and energy. Instead of viewing unsold food solely as a waste stream, Divert treats it as a source of recoverable materials.
Food-Derived Fertilizers provide one pathway for those recovered nutrients. By converting food-derived materials into agricultural inputs, Divert aims to establish a commercial-scale connection between food waste management and crop production.
This approach is particularly relevant to the concept of circularity in agriculture. Conventional food systems often follow a linear path in which agricultural resources are used to produce food, food is sold and consumed, and remaining materials eventually become waste. Circular systems seek to keep resources in productive use for as long as possible.
Divert’s fertilizer portfolio is intended to support that transition by taking nutrients associated with unsold food and redirecting them toward agricultural production.
Agriculture and Food Divert Food-Derived Fertilizers Gain Organic Designations, Advancing Sustainable Agriculture and Food System Circularity
Supporting Organic Agriculture
The new organic designations could broaden the range of growers and agricultural operations able to consider Divert’s food-derived fertilizers.
OMRI evaluates agricultural input products, including fertilizers, pest-control products and livestock-care products, against the requirements of the USDA National Organic Program. Products that meet the applicable requirements can receive OMRI Listed status for use in organic production.
California’s Organic Input Material Program similarly registers fertilizing materials intended for use in organic crop and food production. The program also verifies compliance with applicable California fertilizing-material requirements and USDA National Organic Program standards.
For Divert, achieving these designations provides an important validation of the potential role of food-derived nutrients in organic agriculture. It also creates an avenue for nutrients recovered from unsold food to support the production of future food within certified organic farming systems.
The development comes as farmers, food producers and agricultural businesses continue to examine ways to improve resource efficiency while managing input costs. Fertilizer is an essential component of crop production, and the availability of alternative sources of nutrients can be an important consideration for agricultural supply chains.
More Than Fertilizer Recovery
Divert’s resource-recovery model extends beyond fertilizer production. Through its Integrated Diversion & Energy Facilities, the company says it can also convert unsold food into carbon-negative renewable energy, recover food-bound water for beneficial reuse and generate data that can help customers reduce food waste and increase donations.
This integrated approach is intended to maximize the value recovered from food that cannot be donated. By combining waste diversion, energy production, nutrient recovery and data generation, Divert seeks to address multiple challenges within the food system through a single infrastructure model.
The company’s strategy also places food waste prevention and resource recovery within the broader transition toward a more circular economy. Recovering nutrients from food waste can potentially reduce the need for those resources to leave the food system permanently, while renewable energy generation can create an additional benefit from the same material stream.
Advancing Food System Circularity
The new organic designations reinforce Divert’s broader objective of keeping valuable resources in circulation. For the agricultural sector, the development highlights how food waste can become a source of useful inputs rather than simply an environmental liability.
The designation of Procyclos 6-0-0 Organic as OMRI Listed and CDFA Registered, along with the CDFA registration of Procyclos 7-0-0 Organic, expands the company’s ability to serve organic agriculture and strengthens its position in the food-derived fertilizer market.
Ultimately, Divert’s model connects two areas that are often treated separately: food waste management and agricultural nutrient supply. By recovering nutrients from unsold food and returning them to farms, the company is working to create a more circular pathway from food production to food waste recovery and back into agriculture.
Divert is a portfolio company of Ara Partners, a global private equity and infrastructure and energy firm focused on decarbonizing the industrial economy. Through its Circular Infrastructure Platform and Food-Derived Fertilizers portfolio, Divert is continuing to develop infrastructure intended to turn unavoidable food waste into resources that can contribute to energy production, agricultural productivity and a more circular food system.
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