Backcountry use for potty bags only one of many – Phillips Environmental Products Inc.

A new cottage industry — based on an age-old problem — is catching on in Chouteau County.

Equipped with disposable bags, toilet paper and a high-tech and somewhat mysterious substance called "Pooh Powder," residents are earning extra cash and making life more comfortable for everyone from Hurricane Ivan relief workers to soldiers in Iraq.

By KAREN OGDEN
Tribune Regional Editor

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/news/stories/20040925/localnews/1302606.html

In kitchens and garages from Loma to Geraldine, industrious residents are assembling "Wag Bag" kits — a modern potty alternative to finding a well-placed log or digging a cat hole.

The work is bringing roughly $24,000 a month into the community, according to Chouteau County Commissioner Jim O’Hara, who helped set up the venture. That’s precious income in a rural area struggling with a declining population and closing storefronts.

In return, Wag Bag’s inventor, Belgrade-based Phillips Environmental Products Inc. http://www.thepett.com/ , is able to keep up with growing demand for its "human waste disposal kits."

Wag Bag sales have jumped from 600,000 last year to an expected 2 million this year, said Nikki Erickson, the company’s Operations and Production Manager.

Customers include the U.S. military and the Federal Emergency Management Agency as well as sporting goods retailers Cabela’s and REI.

The company recently filled large orders for relief workers responding to Hurricane Ivan. Most of the bags assembled in Fort Benton are going to Iraq.

"We’re a small, growing company, so it helps relieve some of our growing pains by helping out other communities too," Erickson said. "We want to help out the whole state of Montana."

About 30 Chouteau County residents are putting together Wag Bags for Chouteau County Home Assemblers, a nonprofit created to supply Phillips Environmental.

A warehouse opened in Fort Benton last month shipped its first 100,000 completed Wag Bags to Belgrade last week.

Wag, by the way, stands for Waste Alleviation and Gelling — but we’ll get to that later.

Although three Chouteau County Commissioners sit on the nonprofit’s board, the endeavor is not funded by or formally affiliated with the county, O’Hara said.

He learned about Phillips Environmental by chance while visiting U.S. Sen. Max Baucus’ office and gave them a call.

"We — just like a couple horse traders — made the deal where they would pay so much per bag and we would pay the freight and administration and everything," O’Hara said.

The nonprofit has hired a part-time warehouse manager and a part-time payroll clerk for the operation and plans to hire a truck driver to deliver the bags to Belgrade twice a month.

Assemblers drop by the Fort Benton warehouse to pick up "Pooh Powder" and other kit components, including bags, hand sanitizer and toilet paper.

They earn anywhere from $4 to $9 an hour, depending on how fast they work.

Ideally, assemblers complete 1,500 bags a week, working from 17 to 21 hours, Erickson said.

More than 100 people responded to the nonprofit’s initial request for assemblers, but almost 20 members of the first crew quit soon after, O’Hara said. Many of them had full-time jobs and planned to work on the bags on weekends.

"It’s not for everybody," O’Hara said. "There’s some people that weren’t able to do it fast enough to make an hourly wage."

The endeavor has worked especially well for stay-at-home moms, residents of remote areas and others who can’t drive into town for work, O’Hara said.

"I can get my whole work week done in three days," said Pamela Scribner, a single parent who lives 33 miles from Fort Benton near Square Butte. "You have to have a rhythm, and you have to have all your stuff in one little assembly area."

Each kit consists of a puncture-resistant, zip-close, disposable bag, toilet paper, hand sanitizer and a waste bag with Pooh Powder.

The powder, developed by Phillips Environmental, is a nontoxic, polymer-based absorbent, similar to that used in baby diapers. It also includes an organic decay catalyst and odor neutralizer.

The powder gels liquid waste, encapsulates solid waste and begins the decay process, according to the company’s Web site.

"It’s not a very fun thing to have to deal with, but ours is a pretty easy and sanitary way to do it," Erickson said.

The Wag Bag can be used four to five times, packed out and thrown away.

A 12-pack costs $38.95 online from Phillips Environmental.

The company also sells portable toilet systems, including a backpack model with a privacy tent. Its products have been featured on ABC’s "Good Morning America" and in the Wall Street Journal.

Bill and Pam Phillips and Mike Groff founded the company five years ago. The Phillips are traveling abroad this week and could not be reached for comment.

The company expects more growth and considers the Chouteau County endeavor a pilot project for expanding to other communities, Erickson said.

"We’re always looking for people," she said. "It’s just a matter of when we’re hiring them on."

O’Hara expects the business to be a steady source of income for Chouteau County residents.

"There’s a couple things you have to do every day," he said. "You have to eat, and you have to go to the bathroom. I don’t see any end to it."

Ogden can be reached by e-mail at [email protected], or by phone at (406) 791-6536 or (800) 438-6600.