Just a few thoughts to share as you wrap up another year and decade in the world of portable sanitation:
Downtown restrooms are a practical solution
Yet again, the lack of public restrooms in a city center is causing a serious sanitation issue. This time it’s in Springfield, Illinois, the Land of Lincoln, where people are openly relieving themselves. But a resident, Jay McCann, has come forward to offer a solution. According to a News Channel 20 report, McCann pledged to pay for a portable restroom for the homeless to use, but his offer is being ignored.
McCann reports confronting a man who urinated in front of him, and the man said he had nowhere else to go. “Working downtown, when you arrive in the morning, somebody has left you a present on your doorstep on occasion. I actually see it being delivered in the daylight. It’s not very pleasant,” McCann says.
So why wouldn’t the city jump on his offer to pay a restroom company to place and maintain a unit? Springfield Mayor Jim Langfelder offers a hint.
“You don’t want port-a-potties sprinkled all throughout your downtown,” he says. “I mean, that’s what you have to take a look at, and how does that blend in with the environment you’re trying to portray?”
Is a clean and well-maintained portable restroom really a worse way to portray your downtown than letting visitors witness people go to the bathroom on the sidewalk?
Next door to Illinois in Iowa City, Iowa, they look at portable sanitation differently. Just ask Joe Reilly, the new “nighttime mayor,” who recently led an effort to bring more portable restrooms to a busy downtown entertainment district. Iowa City, home to the Big Ten’s University of Iowa, claims to be the first city to name an unofficial nighttime mayor to address issues that go along with vibrant downtown areas; other cities including Orlando, Florida, Pittsburgh and New York City, have followed suit.
One of Reilly’s first initiatives was to improve the restroom experience for visitors, especially during Iowa Hawkeyes football weekends.
“We would have people who were downtown going into businesses, shops and restaurants just to use the restroom,” Reilly told The Daily Iowan newspaper recently. “That creates extra pressure on the restaurant. So, if they couldn’t find a suitable place to use the restroom, sometimes it would end up in the alleyways.”
Reilly recognized the city needed to take action to improve sanitary conditions and provide more opportunities for students and others going out and enjoying festivities. An area restaurant manager told The Daily Iowan that the restrooms have been a great addition.
“It’s so great. Instead of the kids trying to run to the bathroom when a whole bunch of people are trying to get in here, you can just have port-a-potties,” said Blake Carel of Marco’s.
The bottom line for Reilly is that portable restrooms serve an important function where many people gather. “I think at the end of the day, what everyone wants is a safe, clean and vibrant downtown,” Reilly told the paper.
Some cities are coming to the same conclusion as Iowa City, but there is a long way to go to get folks to accept that improved sanitation should be a bigger priority.
Officials confronting homelessness in cities across the country need to adjust their attitudes about portable restrooms and partner with our industry to improve sanitation for all in public areas. PROs offer practical and economical solutions to safely handling waste in urban settings and bring more dignity to those in dire need of facilities. I wish I could get this magazine into the hands of city officials everywhere so they can see the professionalism and quality service offered by our contractors.
Give more thought to your safe placement procedures
You’ve probably all seen viral YouTube videos of restrooms flying through the air in a windstorm and a restroom destroyed when hit by equipment on a busy construction site. Well, the impact of questionable placement procedures for portable restrooms can go well beyond a few funny online videos. They can result in risk of human injury and litigation, as we have seen in two cases from last summer.
In Ottawa, Ontario, the provincial Ministry of Labour recently announced a fine of $70,000 imposed on a construction company for placement of a restroom that resulted in serious injury to a worker. According to the Ottawa Sun, a worker at a Carleton University job site was struck by a backhoe while leaving a restroom, suffering multiple injuries. The unit was placed along a roadway at an angle where the restroom user and backhoe operator would not be able to see each other.
Across the country in Calgary, Alberta, a woman was traumatized when the restroom she was using at the Wings Over Springbank Airshow was blown over by sudden intense winds. Several restrooms were toppled; the woman’s unit hit the ground, door down, trapping her inside as she was drenched with the contents of the holding tank.
“I was a mess. My hair had some toilet paper in it and I had blue water, pee water. I saw some needles there. It was gross,” the woman told Global News. The woman and her family questioned why the units weren’t tied down or secured in some way to prevent tip-overs. She suffered bruises and was concerned about being exposed to infectious diseases. The woman and her family were considering legal action.
Both of these incidents are reminders to give careful thought to safety risks and potential dangers at every site where you drop off a restroom. Of course, 99% of the time your placement location works out fine, but you have to remain vigilant every time you pull a unit from your tailgate or delivery trailer and leave it with the customer. Perhaps you should use some downtime this winter to review any number of placement challenges and how your drivers should handle each situation.
Restroom etiquette explained: Follow these simple rules
Courtesy of WKFR-FM Radio, 103.3, here are the top five rules for using a portable restroom at last summer’s Ribfest in Kalamazoo, Michigan. These might seem like common sense, but PROs everywhere have found that common sense isn’t common enough:
1. Don’t be distracted when in line: While waiting to use the loo, it is easy to get in a conversation or take a few selfies. But remember, people are waiting for you. Pay attention so when it is your turn, you are ready to step in.
2. Don’t dillydally while in the potty: Remember, there are others waiting to step in and handle their business. Plus, the festival is going on and people have places to be. Taking too long will upset others.
3. Don’t put the toilet lid down: As with every bathroom, you want to touch as few things as possible. Lifting up a lid is not something anyone wants to do.
4. Keep it clean: Make sure you put the paper products in the proper disposal area (ladies, this is an important point when dealing with feminine products). In the end, no one wants to touch another person’s garbage.
5. One at a time: No matter how bad you have to go, it is one at a time in a (restroom). Heck, it’s crowded and hot, so just wait your turn.
