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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Yellowknife's plan to phase out honey bags and buckets in Woodyard shacks by providing residents with composting toilets has been a success, said Woodyard dweller Miranda Currie.

Woodyard resident Miranda Currie received her composting toilet from the city last year. She said it was easy to install and is working well. - Miranda Scotland/NNSL photo

The toilets are better than the previous system, Currie added.

"I don't have to plug my nose and drag this bag, that might sometimes leak, outside," she said.

In 2010, the city started the composting toilet pilot program by providing commodes to two shacks so those residents would no longer require Yellowknife's honey bag service.

Later, the program was expanded when the 10 other registered residents using the service were given the choice to receive a composting toilet or a $1,700 rebate on purchasing a propane toilet.

In January, the honey bag service was discontinued.

The program cost the city $17,000, but Mayor Gord Van Tighem said it was best for the city in the long run.

"There has been significant savings," he said, adding the honey bag pick-up service cost the city approximately $15,000 a year. And Yellowknife would have had to purchase a new truck, at $40,000, to continue the program.

"There was definitely some forward thinking that I applaud," said Currie. "I think this is perhaps the best solution they (the city) could have had."

Yellowknife provided honey bag collection for more than 50 years. In the late 1970s, property owners and the city signed an agreement stating that an alternative waste management system would be put in place when properties owned before 1969 changed ownership. But that policy was never enforced and collection continued until the composting toilet program was put in place.

However, there was one slight hiccup in the city's recent plan. When Currie moved into her home last September, the previous owner had sold the composting toilet provided by the city. Fortunately, Currie said, the city agreed to give her a new one but she had to sign an agreement stating that the toilet wouldn't leave the house.

Van Tighem said he wasn't aware of the situation but suspected it was a rare issue.

Woodyard resident Ryan McCord said his toilet is working well and it was easy to install.

"I think it's an improvement. I mean you're saving all those plastic bags, " he said, comparing the toilet with the honey bucket system. "I think it's a better system overall."

A composting toilet works by essentially turning human waste into soil through the decomposing activity of bacterial organisms.

Currie has a ventilation system on her commode so it doesn't stink up her home.

"Overall, I'm pretty happy with it," she said.

Currie said she plans to use the compost to fertilize trees, shrubs and other plants that she doesn't eat.

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