PCC Natural Markets is unveiling Tuesday a new alternative for dealing with food waste at its Issaquah location.

For the past two years, the local grocery co-op has been working with WISErg, a Washington startup developing a ‘harvester’ machine to convert food waste into liquid fertilizer. All nine PCC locations will carry the fertilizer, a brown liquid the consistency of water.

Diana Crane, director of sustainability at PCC, said the co-op is testing the device and will soon decide whether to continue the partnership with WISErg.

She said the company was excited to participate in the pilot project.

‘There was no downside for us,’ she said. Once the harvester is commercially available, she said, ‘I think people will be beating down their doors.’

After working together at Microsoft, Jose Lugo and Larry LeSueur, co-founders of Issaquah-based WISErg, left in 2005 to independently pursue other projects. They both ended up looking into the possibilities of green projects involving anaerobic digestion - essentially composting without air.

In 2009, they reconnected through a mutual friend and formed WISErg, in the hopes of creating a new way to deal with food waste.

Similar anaerobic digesters have been used in agriculture and wastewater-treatment plants for years, but Lugo and LeSueur said they […]

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