
Celebrating World Toilet Day with NYC Restrooms 4 All

For World Toilet Day 2019, PHLUSH is honored to announce our partnership with the coolest new group around! NYC Restrooms 4 All is a student-led coalition that advocates for public restroom availability throughout New York City. Like us, they know “clean and safe bathrooms are essential to human dignity.” But how do you bring public toilets to a city of 8.6 million people and 62 million annual visitors? When there are less than 750 free, tax-supported restrooms to begin with, where do you start? Well, NYC Restrooms 4 All advocates are deep diving into successful models elsewhere (from the Community Toilet Scheme to Nette Toilette), tweaking them to fit NYC, and pulling officials from five boroughs on board.


Current research on New York City’s restroom problem shows the challenge NYC Restrooms 4 All is boldly taking on. Who doesn’t love New York City? Isn’t this something we can all get behind? New Yorkers with manageable commutes to work manage okay. Residential building codes provide for home bathrooms, occupancy codes require a certain number of restrooms in schools and other structures and OSHA ensures most workers have access to a toilet. Think of construction sites with those porta potties which are locked up tight at quitting time As soon as New Yorkers get stuck between school or work and home, they are out of luck. As are all the rest of us when we arrive in the public toilet desert of New York streets. Let’s educate ourselves and get behind the multiyear initiative of NYC Restrooms 4 All. In her September guest post marking the launch of NYC Restrooms 4 All, Maeve Flaherty delves into the issues and shows the way forward for this remarkable group.
Why does the United States only care about bathroom sanitation in other countries? This is the question Maeve Flaherty explores in an article of that title published in the Columbia Political Review, a multi-partisan magazine that seeks to enhance involvement in the political process and to foster political discourse. Through the United Nations, USAID and other organizations the United States has invested to increase access to sanitation in foreign countries. However, within the United States, the poorest and most marginalized groups still do not have access to toilets and showers. Maeve attributes America’s dismissive attitude toward public restrooms as a real issue to its Puritan heritage and the end of pay toilets.

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Are you passionate about public sanitation, toilet access, and emergency preparedness? PHLUSH (Public Hygiene Lets Us Stay Human) is looking for enthusiastic volunteers to help us make the world a better place to poop and pee. The need for public restrooms has never been greater due to the pandemic, rising…
Happy Menstrual Hygiene Day!
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PHLUSH is looking for volunteers!