LONGVIEW, Wash. — A new facility in Longview aims to keep unsold food out of landfills while turning it into renewable energy and fertilizer for the Pacific Northwest.

Divert, Inc. announced on Saturday that it has opened its Integrated Diversion & Energy Facility in Longview, Washington, calling it the first of its kind in the state.

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The 66,000-square-foot site uses the company’s depackaging technology and anaerobic digestion to process unsold food and other organic materials into renewable energy and nutrient-rich fertilizers.

At full capacity, Divert said the facility will be able to process up to 100,000 tons of unsold, non-donatable food each year. The company said the facility is expected to produce more than 235,000 MMBtu of renewable energy and 450,000 pounds of fertilizer annually, which it said is enough to power more than 3,200 homes and support the growth of 225 million pounds of apples.

Divert also said the facility’s operations can offset up to 23,000 metric tons of CO2e each year.

“The Longview facility will help build a more resilient, circular food system in the Pacific Northwest with energy, agriculture and economic impacts well beyond our operations,” said Ryan Begin, CEO and co-founder of Divert. “Across the country, waste systems are becoming more complex and disposal is moving farther from where material is generated. We need solutions that keep value local. Our model is proven to increase food donation, recover energy, and return nutrients back into the regional economy in an efficient, scalable way. That supports compliance, strengthens agricultural communities, and advances greater energy independence.”

Divert said the facility will serve food retailers, distributors and manufacturers in the region, including Albertsons, Fred Meyer, Kroger, Reser’s Fine Foods and Safeway. The company said a partnership with Feeding America is intended to help optimize donation opportunities for people facing hunger in the local community.

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“Our partnership with Divert and the new Longview facility give us an integrated organics diversion solution in the region we can rely on,” said Danelle Macias, senior director of sales and support for Albertsons, Portland Division. “Service reliability is essential to our business, and this is the kind of partnership where the operational details are taken care of, so we can focus on servicing our customers and communities.”

The company said the facility is also designed to help businesses comply with organics diversion rules, including Washington’s Organics Management Law and Portland’s business food scraps requirement, which require companies to divert organic waste from landfills.

Divert said Longview’s industrial base and proximity to utilities capable of receiving renewable natural gas helped make the location a fit. Under an interconnection agreement with Cascade Natural Gas, the company said renewable natural gas from the facility will be fed directly into the existing distribution pipeline to power homes, businesses and hard-to-electrify industries in the area.