““I wish it need not have happened in my lifetime,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.””
— H- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Who knows what the world will be like the day you are reading this column? As I write it in April, things are constantly changing with new data, new stories and new warnings about COVID-19. It seems pretty clear that whatever is happening, it isn’t business as usual. Our lives are being transformed.
In 2000, Malcolm Gladwell wrote a book called The Tipping Point. In it, he explored how society makes changes — big changes — seemingly out of nowhere. What he found is this: “Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread like viruses do.”
The Portable Sanitation Association International’s Education Initiative Committee studied that book and used its concepts in the development of our long-term plan to transform the image of portable sanitation. We know how valuable portable sanitation is, yet historically it has not gotten the respect it deserves. We also know changing popular opinions from “Oh gross!” to “Oh, thank goodness!” will take a lot of hard work over many years — educating people, raising standards and holding ourselves accountable. That’s what changing hearts and minds requires when you do it bit by bit.
Sometimes, fate intervenes. Gladwell found that occasionally ideas get some unexpected help from external circumstances. It’s called “context,” and simply put, when a great idea is given a boost by events that are happening in the world, a tipping point is reached and suddenly the great idea becomes obvious to everyone. It spreads like a good virus.
I submit that this terrible, disruptive COVID-19 pandemic can be portable sanitation’s tipping point.
Consider the following:
• Hand-washing is “suddenly” getting the attention it deserves. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has called hand-washing a “do-it-yourself vaccine” for years. Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards always required the availability of hand-wash facilities on job sites. It was only with COVID-19 that people demanded them as a condition of working at all.
• Job site leaders are insisting on units being serviced multiple times a week. COVID-19 has made them aware that viruses can survive outside the body for a long time. While it is true that this particular virus is heartier, more contagious and more dangerous than many, the fact that viruses stay viable on surfaces is not news. All forms of hepatitis endure on surfaces for days — sometimes months — and it, too, is contagious. Only with COVID-19 have these customers decided to pay attention.
The fact is, we need to “make lemonade out of lemons.” Used as a tipping point, the reactions we see to this dreadful COVID-19 pandemic can help bring about long-term changes in user expectations, standards and enforcement. This will pave the way to improved portable sanitation experiences all around.
The PSAI already had a plan to transform the image of our industry, and now we are kicking it up a notch. We invite you to get involved. With more companies working together, these changes fueled by COVID-19 will become impossible to roll back. If you are not already a member, join us. If you feel you can’t join right now, call to learn how you can be part of the solution as a nonmember. Everyone can do something to help.
Someday these difficult times will be over. When we look back on them, let’s hope what we remember most is how we pulled together. How our efforts saved lives in the short term. And how our industry was transformed for the long term.
