A Leamington company is hoping to make the world a better place while creating jobs and reducing waste, and it's getting help from the federal government.

Competitive Green Technologies has received nearly half a million dollars from the Ministry of Agriculture.

“The government of Canada is proud to support companies like Competitive Green Technologies who use cutting-edge technologies to create innovative environmentally friendly products that will help to green the Canadian economy, while offering new value-added opportunities for farmers,” says Guelph MP Lloyd Longfield, who announced the funding in Leamington Friday.

“By investing in innovative activities such as these, our government is demonstrating our commitment to meeting our climate change targets through supporting clean growth in the agriculture sector,” adds Longfield.

Competitive Green Technologies produces an alternative material that could make car parts lighter, and other products like coffee pods decomposable.

The five-year-old company uses things like oat hulls, wheat straw and coffee bean shells -- items originally deemed useless -- to create a biocomposite material that is becoming valuable for companies like Ford Motor Company and restaurants.

“Until now, it had been all sent to landfill,” says CGT President Mike Tiessen. “So now it's being diverted from landfills and we're getting semi-loads of coffee chaff as a bio filler every week from companies like McDonald's and Tim Horton’s.”

Tiessen tells CTV Windsor the federal funding will help create local jobs and expand business ventures around the world.

The company has seen its employment grow from a staff of four to 17 people.

CGT is also looking to make biodegradable yogurt containers and dairy creamers.

Government and company officials say their technology is a game changer not only for reducing waste in landfills, but for adding value to the local agriculture industry.