Novel compost company finds fertile ground in Carleton Place

An Ottawa Valley business that launched a unique compost service in Almonte two years ago is expanding.

Several hundred households, a handful of restaurants and even a few schools have signed up with Just Good Compost and its private organic waste collection program.

The husband and wife team of William Affleck and Kelley Scott expanded their simple solution to small-scale household compost collection to Carleton Place this month.

"Small municipalities are in a real bind because it doesn't make any sense to have a compost program," said Affleck, pointing to the low population density, long distances and "vermin trouble" that can make rural compost operations a non-starter.

But in Almonte, Just Good Compost has found residents are willing to "pay to peel."

He's tapping into a growing desire among many to prevent their organic waste from festering for a lifetime in a landfill and the "pang of guilt" that comes with it.

"I feel like I am just a spark — there was something that was here already," he said.

Affleck said the business model he hit on by accident could be duplicated in any small town where low population density makes an organic waste collection program unworkable.

The "accident" occurred while Affleck was studying social psychiatry in Montreal, a discipline that focuses on the social determinants of mental health and recovery.

"One of the things that happens with people with mental illnesses is they become isolated — their life gets smaller and smaller and smaller and they tend to get trapped in their basements," Affleck observed.

In Montreal's Plateau neighbourhood, Affleck encountered a quirky, free-spirited neighbourhood character who operated a small-scale compost service from the seat of his bicycle.
    
Affleck said he watched the man pedal through the neighbourhood, collecting household food scraps in a bucket and turning them into rich, dark compost in his backyard, then returning those dividends to his clients.

Now a doctor of psychiatry, Affleck said that simple, pedal-powered business had given the man purpose and a role in the life of his community. 

Today, Affleck has put his psychiatry career on hold. He and Scott bought a commercial van and hundreds of used, 13-litre food-grade plastic buckets.

They have signed up hundreds of residential customers, but also business owners like Gwen Neelin whose quaint Almonte sandwich shop now has suitable place for the egg shells, onion skins and bread crusts that are a necessary part of its waste stream.

"It's really just my own peace of mind and feeling like I'm not contributing to massive food waste," said Neelin.

Affleck and Scott employ almost two dozen workers with developmental disabilities to wash and bleach buckets to a nearly new condition, making them ready for the next rotation.

At Lanark County Support Services, while Afflect cut cheques for Just Good Compost employees for their work, Trevor enthusiastically volunteered for an interview and vouched for the bucket washing work he was engaged in.

"It's gross," he said, holding up an extended thumb and laughing.

The waste is composted at a facility in Perth.

Once a year, Just Good Compost clients are invited to an end-of-year barbecue where they meet like-minded neighbours who can take home compost for their gardens.

The town will subsidize compost subscribers at the rate of $75, which brings an annual household organic waste pickup plan from $275 down to $200.

Affleck and Scott believe the model will appeal to many small towns that struggle to justify their own organic waste program, as well as offering paid work to people who might otherwise have difficulty finding it.