Our waste infrastructure lags behind the products we manufacture
One woman has set out to be part of changing it all for the better. An interview with Kaitlin Mogentale of Trashy Chips & Divert, Inc.
Kaitlin Mogentale. Where to begin?
I met Kaitlin last year or so at a mutual’s dinner party, and we immediately got high on each other’s vibes and started hanging out all the time. She’s tall, lively, brilliant, and wonderful, full of energy and ideas, and always pushing-pushing-pushing to create REAL change in her community. Since I’ve known her, I’ve watched her build her own company, create and then pivot her brand, network and build important relationships, plus find the time to show up at compost workshops and cheerlead the volunteer squad. She’s the kind of big picture thinker that you typically see praised for their bold ideas and gravity-defying drive when they are, ahem… men.
Recently, she’s fully relocated to Turlock, California in order to work on building out some new—and critically-needed—organics recycling infrastructure with the team at Divert, Inc. Did I whoop aloud when I saw her post this update to LinkedIn? Yes. Did I immediately reach out to her and ask if she’d be willing to chat about what she’s doing with my readers? Also yes.
In my time working as a community composter, I have also come to the sobering realization that one of the biggest problems we face in dealing with our massive food waste problem is a lack of proper infrastructure. We have endless “biodegradable” products on every supermarket shelf, and only a few hundred industrial-level composting facilities in the entire country that can process them. We have tons of upstart consumer food products with sustainable missions, and no path toward meaningfully managing the food waste in their supply chains. It’s really bad.
The conversation I had with Kaitlin, and the work that she is doing with the team at Divert, Inc., is really important to me. I really hope you read it!
Hope you enjoy!
Tell us a little about yourself and your background.
My name is Kaitlin Mogentale. I'm a recovering founder in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) space. I started an upcycled food brand called Pulp Pantry, which we rebranded to Trashy last year. We made veggie chips sourced from upcycled produce, primarily from the juicing industry—using all the leftover fiber that typically goes to waste.
Now, I’m the Business Development Manager of Industrials at Divert, Inc. We’re working on food waste recycling in California’s Central Valley and across the U.S., scaling rapidly with a really exciting anaerobic digestion technology.
What issues were you finding in the CPG industry, as founder of your own upcycled packaged foods brand?
Honestly, the margins are brutal. We got into big-name retailers like Target, Whole Foods, and Sprouts, and distributed through UNFI and KeHE. But as a small, emerging brand, you’re really at the bottom of the food chain. You’re paying fees on fees—marketing, placement, distribution—and you don’t even own your customer data. It’s incredibly hard to stay on shelves without deep pockets and continuous fundraising.
It was heartbreaking to build something so mission-driven and realize that the business model just wasn’t sustainable. That experience really made me want to step back and figure out how to build a truly sustainable business—economically and environmentally.
Can you talk a little about Divert, what they do, and how you got involved?
Divert is an incredible company tackling food waste at scale. We’ve developed a process to automatically depackage and digest packaged food waste using microbes, which creates methane gas that’s captured and converted into renewable natural gas.
We partner with major retailers and help them not only recycle their food waste but also track data, improve donation rates, and reduce what ends up in landfills. I joined Divert after realizing how broken the CPG model was and wanting to be part of a systems-level solution.
Tell us about the new facility you guys are building in Turlock, CA. What are you hoping to accomplish with this new infrastructure? Feel free to brag. :)
We opened our Turlock facility in January, and it's a beast. It can process over 100,000 tons of food waste a year—that’s more than 200 million pounds annually. We receive truckloads of expired, damaged, or unsellable products from major retailers. If it can’t be donated, it comes to us. My job is to build our Industrials business, working with major food manufacturing companies in the area.
What makes this facility special is our automated depackaging system, which lets us handle fully packaged waste—something composters and animal feed outlets usually can’t take. We also wash and reuse retailer bins, creating a circular system. The methane generated goes into renewable energy, and the remaining material becomes a nutrient-rich soil amendment.
What have been the obstacles, to date, for building this kind of infrastructure? Why are we so LATE to the game on this, as a society!?
The biggest barrier? Cost. Each facility costs around $100 million to build. And policy hasn’t kept pace—California is ahead with SB 1383, but even that is mostly education-based, not strictly enforced.
It’s also still cheaper to landfill food waste, which is wild considering how harmful that is. Divert has worked hard to be cost-competitive with landfill, which is essential for broad adoption. But it’s clear that we need stronger policies and better incentives to make food waste recycling the norm, and education to let partners across the supply chain know that solutions like Divert exist nationally. I think the biggest gap currently is that waste is a zero-sum game, and most organizations don't invest time or resources into finding the optimal waste management programs and partners.
What issues might a CPG brand encounter that would result in them sending food to a landfill? Can you demystify this a bit for us humble consumers?
Definitely. Some of the most common reasons include:
Overproduction – you make too much and it goes out of spec or expires.
Allergen concerns or microbial test failures – the product might not be safe to sell.
Retailer rejections – if you're late on a delivery or have short shelf life, your product can get bounced back.
Packaging mistakes – like a misprinted ingredient list or missing date code.
Discontinuations – when a retailer stops carrying your product, and you can’t resell it fast enough.
In highly perishable categories, you're always working against the clock. But from what I've seen — a lot of the food that goes to waste is still edible and it's not about the food being "bad." It’s about logistics, liability, and timing.
What future are you hoping to build toward?
We want a future where no food ends up in landfill. When you think about all the water, labor, soil, and energy it takes to grow food, throwing it away is just tragic.
Our work at Divert is about recovering the value of food—whether through donation, upcycling, or energy conversion. We're creating a system where food waste becomes a resource: renewable energy, soil nutrients, and data insights for prevention. That’s the future we’re building.
Lastly, how should folks get in touch if they're interested in partnering? Do you have advice for consumers on how to buy smart and what to look for to ensure things we buy are REALLY meeting their sustainability claims?
If you’re a business interested in partnering, email me at kmogentale@divertinc.com or find me on LinkedIn.
For consumers, I recommend:
Buy direct from local farmers—check out LocalHarvest.org to find them.
Call your waste haulers—ask where your food and compostable waste is actually going, and if you're not satisfied with the answer, find local compost hubs or neighbors willing to take your waste. I had a friend offer that I can drop off my compost in her green bin, for instance, since her neighborhood offers better food waste recycling in a dedicated facility.
Look for third-party certifications or transparent storytelling around sourcing and end-of-life. Don't be afraid to call, email brands and their customer support lines for help on how to properly dispose of your items, or to engage in a dialogue that shows you care about the issue.
And don’t be afraid to push your local policymakers to support food waste recycling and better infrastructure. Change starts locally.