Instead of using a bathroom, people retire to a room in a house, pull a curtain and use a honey bucket — typically a 5-gallon bucket with a toilet seat on top and a plastic bag inside.

The 18-year-old stomps on the outside of the buckets to loosen the plastic bags inside, then dumps them among a mess of bathroom waste and garbage on the edge of one of Alaska's largest villages.

The village of Akiachak, Alaska, is visible from an airplane, Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2023. Akiachak is a Yup'ik village home to roughly 700 people based along the Kuskokwim River.