Almonte, Ont. composting initiative fostering community growth

For two years now, Will Affleck has been going door to door in Almonte collecting scrap food.

"Anything that they eat, we can take," he says.

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Affleck is the founder of Just Good Compost, an initiative started to foster recovery from mental illness and provide jobs to vulnerable populations.

"I think we started with three or four households. My mother was one, my mother's neighbor was the other."

But after being featured on CTV News two years ago, Just Good Compost has seen a composting boom in the Ottawa Valley.

"Right now, we're over 300 households, and five businesses and three schools are all signed up in Almonte, and we've just started working in Carleton Place."

The Town of Almonte does not have a green bin program. Affleck says much of his business's growth has been organic.

"I think it's fantastic. It's one of those things that I feel like I have nothing to do with it," he says of the community's desire to compost their household waste.

"Once you become accustomed to composting, it becomes very strange to throw organics into the garbage. It feels somehow wrong."

That's exactly how Almonte resident Gail Ritchie feels.

"Every time I'd throw something in the garbage, I kind of regretted that I had to do that," Ritchie tells CTV News.

"I wanted something convenient like I'd had before when I lived in Ottawa. And so, when Will started this program, I just went for it right away."

At the end of its annual cycle, Just Good Compost offers participants the chance to claim a bucket of broken-down compost to take home and use in their gardens.

Through expansion, Affleck has also been able to partner with community services to create jobs for people living with disabilities.

"We work with one agency in Almonte, two agencies in Carleton Place and another agency in Perth. So, in total, we're employing 21 people with disabilities to wash buckets," he says.

100 compost buckets are taken to Lanark County Support Services each week for cleaning and sticker application.

"Sometimes it's hard to get in between the grooves of the buckets," says Jessalee Turcotte, an employee of Just Good Compost and member at Lanark County Support Services.

She says sometimes cleaning the buckets can be a stinky job, but the money is nice.

"And you're just like, how do I get that out of there? But I always find a way to do it."

"Paid employment is the goal for most of the individuals we support here," adds Tammy Brown, a supervisor at the Almonte location for Lanark County Support Servies.

Just Good Compost is just now expanding into Carleton Place, with the town offering a $75 discount on the $275 annual fee Affleck charges. The discount is available to the first 500 households that sign up.

And as Just Good Compost collects more waste, Affleck says he is able to create more employment opportunities.

"I'd love to expand the program," he says. "I know that each community across the country has people who need jobs."