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Two stories in the Boston Globe about companies addressing the issue of food waste:

•  One is about a startup company called Divert, which has as its aim helping "the grocery industry reduce its food waste by 50 percent by 2030, consistent with US and United Nations goals … Stores send Divert expired and damaged items, which the company sorts with optical scanning technology. Edible goods are sent to food pantries, while other waste is converted into renewable energy."

According to the story, "For food waste that cannot be diverted to food banks or other uses, Divert turns it into clean energy via a process called anaerobic digestion. Food waste is combined with bacteria, which turn the waste into renewable natural gas, or RNG, which can be used to produce electricity, heat homes, or power vehicles.

"With 250 employees, Divert now operates 10 plants processing 232,000 tons of wasted food per year from more than 5,000 retail stores.

"Reducing waste at the retail level, as Divert does, is one of the most promising strategies for cutting overall food waste, according to Emily Broad Leib, founding director of the Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic."

•  The other story is about how "local restaurants are exploring a creative way to reduce that food waste. One of them is OAK Long Bar + Kitchen, a popular upscale eatery in the heart of the Fairmont Copley Plaza hotel.

"The restaurant has partnered with the app Too Good To Go, which sells unsold food at a fraction of the original price to its visitors. For chef Zaid Khan and his team at OAK Long Bar + Kitchen, the new initiative is a chance to reduce the restaurant’s carbon footprint while getting more customers in the door.

The story goes on:

"For OAK Long Bar + Kitchen, app users can order a few hours ahead and secure a bag of leftover food. At the end of breakfast and dinner services, Khan and his staff clean up and wipe down the kitchen. Then, they package leftover food into 'surprise bags' containing a variety of options. Customers then pick up their surprise bag from the restaurant at a selected time, just like any other takeout order.

"Three large bags are sold after each breakfast and dinner service, to the customers who are quickest to the punch when ordering. For breakfast, that could mean croissants, pastries, yogurt parfaits, or fresh fruit. The dinner deal includes some combination of clam chowder, grits, roasted chicken, and baked bread.

"Each bag is priced at $6.99, a third of its estimated value. Unsurprisingly, college students on a budget are eager to swoop in and grab a bag."

The Globe makes the point that "wasted food is a surprisingly large culprit in global warming, responsible for 7 percent of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. In the United States, food loss and waste are responsible for 170 million metric tons of greenhouse gas, equal to the annual output of 42 coal-fired energy plants, according to the Environmental Protection Agency."