Just Good Compost
How Do They Work?
They take your food scraps and turn them into compost for your garden.
See how easy it is to build soil, clean the air, and support your community!
Will Affleck, a scientist, researcher, and professor of psychiatry at the University of Ottawa was inspired to create Just Good Compost years ago when studying in Montreal.
He fondly remembers the founder of Compost Montreal, Stephen McLeod who started with a bucket on the back of his bicycle and is now diverting hundreds of tons of waste yearly from the Montreal garbage system.
“One community after another supported Compost Montreal and before long he had trucks and a crew and was making a huge, wonderful impact.”
Will is hoping to make the same impact in Almonte and Carleton Place.
Small Buckets
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Big Impact
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Small Buckets • Big Impact •
With repurposed food buckets, a few keen neighbours, and their Subaru, Will and his wife Kelley started Just Good Compost in October 2022.
Their first month they had approximately 25 customers, 2 years later they are serving approximately 300 customers in Almonte and Carleton Place.
Will would like to create a business model that can then be exported to other communities. He is hoping rural or dispersed communities can utilize a similar compost service model that can be implemented in their respective areas.
The goal of Just Good Compost is to help residents build soil, clean the air and support their community.
Customers place their table scraps in a white plastic bucket and leave it on the porch. Their full buckets are collected every week and replaced with a clean one. The food scraps go to local farmers around town who have agreed to coordinate the composting process. Once the food scraps break down into compost, Will shares the finished compost with JGC customers for their gardens. Anything excess is brought to local charities who can sell it to raise funds for their various causes.
In terms of sustainable living, JGC is all about community. They are working with community partners, taking food scraps out of the community waste facilities, and making compost to give back to the community. They are a closed loop within the community with aspirations to improve it. They rely on people's power to get the work done. Their buckets are all "secondhand".
They are able to get them from restaurants in Ottawa and repurpose them, ultimately giving them another life and keeping them out of landfills.
“It feels great to scrape off the old labels and stick ours on instead!”
As a psychiatrist focused on mental health and wellness, Will believes that a composting program is highly beneficial to the residents of that community.
While composting cuts down methane gas and improves soil, it's also a really good social program. It provides camaraderie, physical exercise, a shared mission and accountability. Collecting buckets, seeing other neighbours participate in the Just Good Compost project provides an opportunity to stay connected and check in with each other.
