The year is coming to a close and it’s time to clean out my 2015 news and notes file. I scour the Internet on a daily basis and collect stories from the news media and blogs that involve the portable sanitation industry. Some of these tidbits help me form topics for my monthly column, while others pile up as curiosities on my computer desktop. It’s time to open up the file and comment on some developments over the past year.
Address threats to the industry’s reputation
One person’s negative experience with portable restrooms can snowball into a public relations nightmare that sullies the reputation of the entire industry. Martin Nicolaus is a good example. The Berkeley, California, resident is on a crusade to get rid of the portable restrooms at the local Cesar Chavez Park. He takes photos of the dirty restrooms and shows them at city meetings. He stands outside of the units and interviews disgusted users about the quality of their experiences. He’s circulating a petition to replace the portable restrooms with a permanent bathroom facility.
His complaining about filthy restroom conditions doesn’t help the portable sanitation industry, which constantly stresses the importance of cleanliness. But Nicolaus is not the problem for the industry. Municipal customers who fail to order adequate service for their units seem to be a bigger issue. Comments about this controversy at the website, www.berkeleyside.com, point to a serious challenge faced by PROs everywhere.
“This is really disgusting and an easily avoidable problem that could be remedied by simply increasing the frequency of emptying the toilets,” one poster wrote. “It’s inexcusable that citizens have to campaign to get something so simple done.”
Writes another: “(Portable restrooms) would be fine, too, if our city wasn’t so ridiculously incompetent that they weren’t able to empty them regularly and hose them down once in a while.”
“They mostly just appear extremely under-tended,” concludes another.
Nobody should have to use a restroom filled to the brim with waste. It’s not enough that municipalities provide restrooms in parks; they must follow through and keep them pumped out and sanitary. PROs often unfairly take the blame when restrooms are overused by the public and cause unsafe and unpleasant conditions. Who do you blame for a bad experience? The small business with its name on the door.
The industry shouldn’t shoulder all the blame for this problem. PROs need to continually push municipal and event customers to order adequate service along with the restroom placement, and maybe be willing to walk away from a bad contract rather than damage your reputation further.
Homemade commodes at concert venue?
Speaking of event customers not providing adequate portable sanitation, the Xfinity Center outdoor music venue near Boston has a growing problem with tailgaters bringing their own makeshift toilets and leaving them behind after the party. Police wanted to crack down on this problem at a Jimmy Buffett show last summer.
According to police accounts at www.thesunchronicle.com, fans at the annual Buffett concert have a favorite design for their personal toilets: A 5-gallon bucket with its rim lined with a foam swimming pool noodle. Groups relieve themselves in the buckets all day during parking lot parties and then leave them for event staff to clean up. Police found 75 to 100 of these buckets at the show.
“We’re just not set up to handle that kind of waste,” an event official complained.
The answer seems obvious to me: Order more portable restrooms and let the professionals with the right tools keep them clean. How hard is this to figure out for event planners? If hundreds of people are using buckets as toilets, you aren’t providing adequate facilities. Is this the way you want to treat visitors at your venue?
Mapping event restrooms
Officials from the Grand Floral Parade, Portland, Oregon’s rose parade, offered a new handy service to attendees of the major event last summer: They added the location of portable restrooms on a map of the parade route used by the huge crowd. The restroom locator map was seen as a way to help parade watchers and downtown-business owners who don’t appreciate the extra pressure the event puts on their bathroom facilities.
The www.oregonlive.com website published the map along with a host of tips for parade regulars, including how to effectively save your spot along the route by camping out overnight. I’m sure the campers appreciated having many restrooms spaced out on the streets.
Think about events you work that might benefit from a map of restrooms and hand-wash stations, such as large city music festivals or fun runs. Thoughtful services like restroom mapping could set your business apart from the competition when you’re bidding for those big events for 2016.
Careful placement can prevent costly lawsuits
A Philadelphia tradesman filed a lawsuit against a pair of construction companies and a portable restroom operator after he slipped and fell when emerging from a restroom and allegedly broke his ankle. According to a Pennsylvania legal journal, the worker and his wife are each seeking more than $50,000 plus compensatory damages, interest and court costs, saying the defendants failed to provide a safe work environment.
The worker claims he suffered several injuries when leaving the restroom, which he claims was “dangerously placed on an uneven curb in a poorly lit area,” the Pennsylvania Record reported. The incident happened in January, so perhaps freezing conditions could have been a factor.
No matter how the case turns out, it’s a good reminder for PROs to be on constant lookout for risk of slips, trips and falls when they place restrooms. The lesson may be that you are just one injury away from a potential lawsuit, so your technicians need to think safety every day. Be sure to level units on solid ground, use stakes to anchor units when necessary, and look for well-lit areas to protect users and other workers when units will be used at night. Proper restroom placement is a great topic for regular training sessions with your crew.
Finally, cracking down on vandals
So many incidents of vandalism to portable sanitation equipment go unpunished, while PROs are left to spend thousands of dollars every year to fix the damage. So it’s nice to be able to report when a perpetrator is brought to justice. Earlier this year, a 19-year-old man from Thomaston, Maine, was sentenced to serve seven months in jail and pay $550 in restitution for lighting restrooms on fire at a local park. The man and two friends used toilet paper and hand sanitizer to ignite fires that damaged two restrooms. So the next time one of your units is vandalized, don’t just fix it, but report it to police.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS
For most PROs, December is a time to rest and reflect on a busy event and construction season. Hopefully your crew will be able to catch up on work around the shop and enjoy a few days off with family and friends. I wish you a joyous holiday season and a happy 2016. In January, we can all start planning for the WWETT Show and preparing for the next busy season.
