TAWA: Food Waste Rescue and Composting At Scale

EcoJustice Radio

According to the LA City Sanitation District, a staggering 4,000 tons of food waste is generated in Los Angeles County on a daily basis. This food includes “dinner” scraps as well as spoiled fruit and vegetables from grocery stores and restaurants. Recently, the program Organics LA & SB1383 now requires Los Angeles residents compost their food scraps in order to reduce our mountain of organic waste and divert it away from landfills. The aim is to reduce organic waste in landfills by 75% by 2025. Food waste makes up nearly 20% of the content in landfills. All residents and businesses are now required to do the bare minimum of separating “green” waste from other trash so that it can be recaptured and regenerated. Where does all the green waste go? Who is using it? How is it being transformed into something of regenerative value? How can we reclaim and recycle our waste in a hyperlocal way to benefit the surrounding community at large? Most of us recognize our era asks us to take personal responsibility for closing the loop on our consumption and waste, in order to become a consciously regenerative society that benefits rather than diminishes life. David Velez from TAWA Compost [http://www.tawacompost.org] is here to share how he is turning “trash” into gold, by redistributing and rescuing food, making compost and transforming the unusable into the usable at scale. For an extended interview and other benefits, become an EcoJustice Radio patron at https://www.patreon.com/posts/david-alexander-82033336 David Alexander Velez is a social entrepreneur and innovator. He founded TAWA Compost Food Rescue [http://www.tawacompost.org] in 2022 whose purpose is to reduce waste by transforming these into valuable resources. TAWA rescues edible food, composts inedible food to make high quality compost, and thus helps recondition soil and reduce water consumption in the garden. Carry Kim, Co-Host of EcoJustice Radio. An advocate for ecosystem restoration, indigenous lifeways, and a new humanity born of connection and compassion, she is a long-time volunteer for SoCal350, member of Ecosystem Restoration Camps, and a co-founder of the Soil Sponge Collective, a grassroots community organization dedicated to big and small scale regeneration of Mother Earth. MORE INFO https://paper.dropbox.com/doc/Californias-biggest-environmental-cleanup-leaves-lead-contamination-and-frustration-R3H4PGWvkSNppyL9p5ypw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ja0bBcrLwPk&t=107s Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/ Podcast Blog: https://www.wilderutopia.com/category/ecojustice-radio/ Support the Podcast: Patreon https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=LBGXTRM292TFC&source=url Executive Producer and Intro: Jack Eidt Hosted by Carry Kim Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats Episode 173