The Bottle Shop has these eight tips for Yellowknifers

The Bottle Shop in Yellowknife just celebrated its first year under new ownership. Here are eight things owner Jane Ann Swim really wants you to know.

On May 1, 2025, Swim took over running the city’s central hub for recycling beverage containers, electronics and batteries.

If you leave this article with nothing else, she wants you to know two things:

1. take the caps off your bottles before you bring them; and
2. bring your electronics to The Bottle Shop.

“I can’t believe it’s been a year,” said Swim, who had been planning a different venture – helping military members relocate to Yellowknife – when the opportunity to take over The Bottle Shop suddenly presented itself.

“The universe put this business in my path,” she said.

After one year, this is the knowledge Swim wants to share.

1. ‘If you plug it in, bring it here’

The Bottle Shop – at 359 Old Airport Road in Yellowknife – is also the recycling point for electronics. That goes well beyond old TVs, cell phones and laptops, Swim said.

“If you plug it in or put a battery into it, it’s supposed to be coming back to the bottle depot for proper handling and recycling, not into the garbage,” she said.

“Literally, if you plug it in, it’s supposed to be coming back to us.”

There are very few exceptions to that rule. Large fridges, stoves, washers, dryers, dishwashers, freezers and air conditioning units – particularly, anything containing the refrigerant Freon – should go to Precision North Recycling instead, Swim said.

“Pretty much everything else, if you plug it in – hair dryer, kettle, toaster oven, microwave – it’s supposed to be coming back to the bottle depot.”

2. Why your bottle caps have to come off

Taking your caps off “is a huge one,” said Swim.

The Bottle Shop can’t take caps on bottles in part because accepting caps increases the likelihood that a bottle arrives containing a hazardous substance.

“We get people who pick up bottles on the side of the road and one may have a yellow liquid in it. We get people who have used their containers as [cigarette] butt cans. We get people who use them for collecting drained oil or a chemical,” said Swim.

“Obviously, that’s hazardous. We value our employees. They’re in a high-risk position when it comes to that biohazard.

“If the caps are not on, there’s less chance of the bottles being contaminated inside.”

There’s a second safety reason associated with removing the caps.

Once all the bottles have been crushed and baled for transit, a bale left in warm air could contain a bottle that expands with the cap on – and then the cap flies off.

That cap is “like a bullet crossing a warehouse,” said Swim, “and there are instances of people being hurt. That’s why we ask for people to take the caps off.”

3. Learn when the quietest days are

The Bottle Shop is open Tuesday to Saturday each week and closed on Sundays and Mondays.

Tuesday is a “full-out gong show all day,” said Swim. People who run services bringing in other residents’ recyclables tend to come in on Tuesdays after gathering bags all weekend – and they “know not to come anywhere near us on Saturdays,” added Swim, given how busy Saturdays also are.

Fridays are also busy, so Wednesday and Thursday are your quieter days if you’re looking for a swifter turnaround.

“A Wednesday or Thursday in winter is 35,000 containers a day,” said Swim. “A steady day is now in the 50,000s and a busy day is 70,000 containers.”

4. How to make the most of drop-and-go

There’s a drop-and-go door at The Bottle Shop for people in a hurry.

While you could just rock up, carry in your recyclables and scurry away, there’s a way to make sure you get your money – or donate it to a good cause of your choice – that takes only a few extra seconds.

“You can create an account for yourself so you never have to stand in line,” said Swim.

When you create your account, you choose a number for it – most people choose their phone number.

Bring your items in, drop them, and you can give your account number to receive stickers that are placed on your bags.

Even on the busiest day of the year, said Swim, you can be out in five minutes using this system of stickers to skip the line. Your account is simply credited later – or the sum you would have earned is donated to the charity you choose.

5. The pop-up downtown bottle depot is back

Each Wednesday during the summer, a pop-up bottle depot shows up in the parking lot of Yellowknife’s JumpStart play area near City Hall.

The first one of the season was last week. Wednesday, May 13 marks week two of the summer 2026 season (don’t look at your thermometer like that, we’re calling it summer).

Head to the pop-up station from 12pm till 7pm each Wednesday until some time in September and you’ll be able to access the exact same service: your beverage containers will be sorted and you’ll be paid out on the spot, then it’s hauled back to the depot for processing.

Your electronics and batteries can go to the downtown pop-up station, too.

6. More downtown services could be coming

The Bottle Shop expects to soon experiment with a downtown drop-and-go seacan near Aspen Apartments.

This proposal has been discussed by city council. The GNWT is working to find a contractor for the project.

“It’s a large sea container that has a computer built into it, and it would have doors similar to the Salvation Army drop-off donation bins,” Swim told us. Punch in your drop-and-go code, a door opens and you drop in your bag.

“We have the go-ahead for the government to place that container facility there. What we’re not sure of yet, and why we’re calling it a pilot project, is how the solar panels are going to work and how the computer is going to respond to the cold,” she said.

“We just don’t know if it’s going to be successful. But everybody’s game to try it.”

If the pilot project does work, expect more to open in other locations.

7. How The Bottle Shop earns money

Swim says she’s often asked how The Bottle Shop earns any money to pay its staff, given the 10-cent deposit per item (25 cents for larger containers) is returned to the customer when they bring their recyclables.

She says people tend not to notice the eight-cent environmental fee also charged at the same time.

“You never get that eight cents back. That goes to the government, and then the government processes that to me per item,” she said, explaining where the revenue comes from.

8. Use the bonus half hour for drop-and-go

The Bottle Shop says it closes at 5:30pm, but Swim said you can get in up till 6pm in some circumstances.

“It’s 5:30 if you’re coming in for cash [transactions], but the door still remains unlocked for the next half hour,” she said.

“Most people don’t know about it, because we turn the sign to say ‘closed.’ But it says in the small print that we’re open for drop-and-go for that extra half hour.”