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Mr. Rafael Amezcua is a resident of San Pedro. He has become very interested in composting. There is no support for micro haulers currently in San Pedro since composting is a 'new' trend in the state. Mr. Rafael has faced some barriers since a little before contacting David. He has been asking for food scraps from different businesses with a great spirit. These establishments have denied him food scraps because they simply do not understand why someone would want their trash. Rafael is part of San Pedro Community garden, the garden does not have an established composting area. We TAWA have been providing support since the beginning of the month, Follow the timeline as it unfolds.

San Pedro Community garden

How many plots: 250

Size: 6 acre

City owned

Massive community garden connecting plots by a maze of trails. One of the oldest community gardens in Los Angeles.

04/05/22- Mr. Rafael called David from TAWA after a meeting in the local community garden to see if he could get support in building a system that would fit his composting needs inside his plot.

04/09/22- David met with Rafael to set up the composting system. Discussed ways how to get food waste from restaurants.

04/27/22- Rafael has struggled to get food waste from small and big businesses. He was successful in getting coffee grounds from 2 coffee shops. He is not charging them.

04/25/22- TAWA has decided to support Rafael's journey to becoming a micro hauler by launching a composting pickup service. Rafael has approached the local community garden to see if he can get more space to compost and serve the garden by decomposing all yard trimmings coming from the garden with hopes to eliminate the green bin use.

On January 24, 2022, the US Composting Council held its Emerging composter competition. The Emerging Composer Competition is an annual business pitch/poster competition, open to young professionals looking to showcase their businesses and research within the composting, compostable products, and organics recycling space.

TAWA had the honor to participate as one of their competitors to present them with the solution to resolve food waste, contamination, and homelessness through a structured business plan. The solution would be focused on composting, food redistribution, soil remediation, and employment at our TAWA Regeneration facility.

Out of 13 competitors, TAWA won 2nd place in the competition. Taking home, a prize and great recognition by the USCC and the composting community.

We TAWA would love to thank the USSC for giving us the opportunity to participate. We would also like to thank 1st and 3rd place winners Dylan Lew of Ecotone Renewables Digester and Jamie Blanchard-Poling of Curbside Micro Site Composting and the rest of the competitors for taking part in this event. You are all very inspiring.