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There’s plenty of toilet paper in the US – so why are people hoarding it?

March 20, 2020
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There’s plenty of toilet paper in the US – so why are people hoarding it?

Almost 150 U.S. companies make toilet paper. Studio Dagdagaz/Shutterstock.com Jay L. Zagorsky, Boston University The other day I went into Costco to buy some toilet paper. It came as a small shock when I couldn’t find a single roll. The new coronavirus is inspiring panic buying of a variety of household products such as...

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The POOP Project is coming to Portland 2/22/2020!

February 13, 2020
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The POOP Project is coming to Portland 2/22/2020!

Straight from New York City, The POOP Project is coming to Portland! How do you break the potty taboo and catalyze creative conversation about sustainable sanitation for the person, planet and world community?  The People’s Own Organic Power (POOP) Project​ has been showing us...

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A Report from the Rich Earth Summit

January 1, 2020
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A Report from the Rich Earth Summit

PHLUSH President Hayley Joyell Smith, currently a PhD student at the University of Georgia, reports on the Rich Earth Summit held at the University of Michigan, November 7-8, 2019. She was among the experts – entrepreneurs, engineers, farmers, regulators, researchers and practitioners – who...

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Celebrating World Toilet Day with NYC Restrooms 4 All

November 19, 2019
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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.

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NYC Restrooms 4 All takes up the challenge

September 4, 2019
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We celebrate the launch of NYC Restrooms 4 All with a post by co-founder and Roosevelt Institute Fellow, Maeve Flaherty. If you’ve spent any time in New York City, you’ve had that sinking sensation — a desperate need to go to the bathroom, and...

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Second Graders Tackle Sanitation Justice in Brooklyn, New York

July 6, 2019
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Second Graders Tackle Sanitation Justice in Brooklyn, New York

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Do Americans enjoy the Human Right to Water and Sanitation?

January 23, 2019
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Do Americans enjoy the Human Right to Water and Sanitation?

In a recent segment on NPR affiliate KLCC, Oregon journalist Denise Silfee points out that the UN General Assembly affirmed the human right to water and sanitation in 2010 while the United States failed to join the majority of nations voting for the resolution....

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Fall brings new opportunities for PHLUSH to go “glocal”

October 29, 2018
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Fall brings new opportunities for PHLUSH to go “glocal”

We're all in this together, aren't we? We all poop and pee. How about joining PHLUSH as a donor or volunteer?

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Emergency Sanitation Recommendations for Hurricane Florence

September 13, 2018
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Emergency Sanitation Recommendations for Hurricane Florence

Hurricane Florence is upon us. She is predicted to bring excessive rainfall (over 2 feet) and dangerous storm surge (up to 9-12 feet) to North and South Carolina. While some are rejoicing that wind speeds have been downgraded, NWS continues to predict life-threatening storm...

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Hurricanes, homelessness, and human needs – 2017 Annual Report

May 18, 2018
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Hurricanes, homelessness, and human needs – 2017 Annual Report

In 2017, we made progress toward our goals against a background of hurricanes, homelessness, and a new awareness of human needs that underlines the significance of our work.  We invite you to download our 2017 PHLUSH Annual Report. The deadly consequences of hygiene facilities...

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Design Trends: Inclusion, Privacy, Efficiency, & Convenience

February 6, 2018
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Design Trends: Inclusion, Privacy, Efficiency, & Convenience

We’ve been taking a closer look at contemporary restrooms and see some excellent trends in their design, namely inclusion, privacy, efficiency, and convenience. INCLUSION Inclusive, gender-neutral restrooms serve everyone from those caring for opposite sex children or elders to gender non-conforming people. Unlike single...

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Transit’s missing link: The public toilet

January 19, 2018
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Transit’s missing link: The public toilet

This case study illustrates how the lack of a public restroom on a key route can render transit unusable for many riders and what community members can do to fight back. When it opened in late 2016, riders changing buses at an expensive new...

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New documentary breaks taboos to explore America’s wastewater infrastructure

November 13, 2017
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Follow the Flush in this ground breaking documentary.

Documentary filmmaker Karina Mangu-Ward is going to make a splash with FLUSH, which premieres worldwide on November 15th, 2017.  Mangu-Ward’s images are captivating, the editing is excellent, and the film features some of North America’s most important sanitation heroes. It will change the way you think about...

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A Call for More Comprehensive Disaster Sanitation Preparedness

October 13, 2017
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A Call for More Comprehensive Disaster Sanitation Preparedness

All citizens who pee and poop, that’s everyone, need to know how to safely take care of toileting when the luxury of a ‘flush and forget’ mentality is no longer an option. Natural disasters, such as recent Hurricanes Irma, Harvey and Maria, alter our...

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Hepatitis A and California’s lack of public toilets

September 22, 2017
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Hepatitis A and California’s lack of public toilets

The reluctance of Southern California’s local governments to provide public restrooms has resulted in a public health crisis.  (For updates, see comments at end) San Diego County reports Hepatitis A is the cause of death of 16 people, 14 of which were unhoused citizens...

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PHLUSH urges Orange County to reopen restrooms in public letter

September 16, 2017
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PHLUSH urges Orange County to reopen restrooms in public letter

Dear Orange County Board of Supervisors: Our organization Public Hygiene Lets Us Stay Human (PHLUSH) was appalled at the forced removal of portable toilets located along the banks of the Santa Ana River as reported in a recent article from The Guardian. These toilets...

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World Water Week 2017: Live Blog

August 26, 2017
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World Water Week 2017: Live Blog

Welcome to the PHLUSH live blog of World Water Week 2017. PHLUSH Program Manager Carol McCreary is live blogging (using Twitter) the event in Stockholm, Sweden from August 27th to September 1st. The event program is here. The exhibitors are here. If you want...

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When someone needs a toilet but doesn’t have a home: building support for public toilets

July 15, 2017
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This post is by PHLUSH board member Kyle Earlywine. He also runs his own toilet business and blog. He is a passionate advocate for dignified sanitation for those living without homes. Why do homeless people need toilets? For most people, access to a toilet...

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How do you engage government officials on toilets?

May 11, 2017
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How do you engage government officials on toilets?

Access to water and sanitation are human rights!  But saying this is not enough to get a commitment from governments. We need to engage and persuade public officials who are likely to have limited funding and competing priorities. We need to understand their priorities...

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Reflections from the PHLUSH Board President

April 8, 2017
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Reflections from the PHLUSH Board President

The other day in a rest stop there was a classic motivational poster with the word S.E.R.V.I.C.E. No doubt this was aimed to demonstrate their commitment to keeping things tidy, but for me it resonated with my current service on the PHLUSH Board of...

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PHLUSH looks towards the future as nationally recognized nonprofit

March 4, 2017
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PHLUSH looks towards the future as nationally recognized nonprofit

It’s official. PHLUSH has earned recognition as a nonprofit by the IRS. We are thrilled to announce that our growing organization is moving forward as a 501(c)3. PHLUSH started out as a small community group responding to a lack of toilets in downtown Portland....

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An interview with Anna Preble on Portland’s All-User restrooms

October 18, 2016
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An interview with Anna Preble on Portland’s All-User restrooms

PHLUSH is an all-volunteer organization; our volunteers respond to calls from local agencies and organizations. This ethos brings together a group of motivated professionals working all across North America on diverse sanitation issues. We are proud to feature the work of Anna Preble. Her...

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Social inclusion, toilet rights, and legal protection for transgender Americans

August 31, 2016
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Social inclusion, toilet rights, and legal protection for transgender Americans

Public toilets have long been at the forefront of human rights advocacy in the United States. During the past year, the transgender community and parents of young children who identify with a gender other than their birth sex have successfully advocated for laws requiring...

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Innovative start-up brings waterless ecological toilets to festivals in the Pacific Northwest

May 16, 2016
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Innovative start-up brings waterless ecological toilets to festivals in the Pacific Northwest

When we heard about a company providing portable composting toilets for events in the Pacific Northwest, we wanted to learn more.  So we got in touch with Nicole Cousino,  founder of Nature Commode. Is this your first start up? Nature Commode is my first...

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Teen leads movement bringing menstrual hygiene supplies to thousands of houseless women.

February 25, 2016
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Teen leads movement bringing menstrual hygiene supplies to thousands of houseless women.

Editor’s Note We recently had the opportunity to meet 17-year old Nadya Okamoto, who founded the Camions of Care, a 501c3 nonprofit in Portland, Oregon.  In the past year Camions of Care team members have distributed more than 6,000 care packages of feminine hygiene...

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Lorry Drivers Need Loos, Too!

November 19, 2015
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Lorry Drivers Need Loos, Too!

This guest post from Gill Kemp, leader of Truckers’ Toilets UK and committee member of the British Toilet Association, is last in our series to celebrate World Toilet Day – TODAY – November 19 with the launch of PHLUSH Public Toilet Advocacy Toolkit. The...

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Exclusion by design: a slippery ride

November 16, 2015
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Exclusion by design: a slippery ride

This guest post from Rhonda Cheryl Solomon, master’s degree in Regional and Urban Planning Studies and proprietor of the Gotta Go: Examining Public Toilet Provision in the City blog, is third in our series to celebrate World Toilet Day on November 19 with the...

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US capital city lacks public toilets: People for Fairness Coalition launches critical initiative

November 4, 2015
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US capital city lacks public toilets: People for Fairness Coalition launches critical initiative

This guest post from People for Fairness Coalition (PFFC) is second in our series to celebrate World Toilet Day on November 19 with the launch of PHLUSH Public Toilet Advocacy Toolkit. People living in, working in, and visiting European and Asian capitals take it...

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Austin’s Trail Restroom is a stylish and functional sculpture

October 20, 2015
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Austin’s Trail Restroom is a stylish and functional sculpture

To celebrate World Toilet Day on November 19, PHLUSH is launching a Public Toilet Advocacy Toolkit. Today, we also begin a series of guest blog posts on restroom initiatives. The first in our series is by Kaitlin Krull. She is an Austin, Texas writer...

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Legalize Sustainable Sanitation

July 27, 2015
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Legalize Sustainable Sanitation

“Legalize Sustainable Sanitation” is Molly Danielsson Winter’s prepared testimony on behalf of H.375, the bill that is currently under review in Vermont to expand and incentivize the use of ecological toilets and greywater systems. Molly is Director of Recode, a Portland-based nonprofit whose mission...

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Facing Facts: A Critique of Legacy Wastewater Treatment Systems

May 28, 2015
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Facing Facts: A Critique of Legacy Wastewater Treatment Systems

Hearings in the Vermont House of Representatives earlier this month give a penetrating and carefully documented look into the issues we are researching at PHLUSH. House Bill 375, sponsored by Representative Teo Zagar seeks to expand and incentivize the use of ecological toilets and...

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Enacting Awareness: Water, Waste, and Public Space

May 26, 2015
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Enacting Awareness: Water, Waste, and Public Space

With last Friday’s whimsical 5K walk, activists at the University of California at Santa Cruz focused attention on often-evaded issues. “Slugs to Sludge” was created as a playful way to raise awareness of sewage infrastructure and the water it requires, and to advocate for...

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Global Homeless Day: Toilet Solutions from France for the USA

May 5, 2015
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Global Homeless Day: Toilet Solutions from France for the USA

“The restroom thus becomes a tool for figuring out just how a society functions – what it values, how it separates people from one another, and the kinds of trade-offs that come to be made,” says sociologist Harvey Moltoch. While we at PHLUSH believe...

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Staying human through hygiene while houseless

April 7, 2015
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Staying human through hygiene while houseless

Living houseless in an urban environment requires personal savvy and logistic skill. Days are often an endless series of searches, lines, and waits: finding the next meal, a safe place to sleep, a public restroom. Here at PHLUSH, we see toilet availability as a...

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Poo to Peaches – Educating the Next Generation of Composting Toilet Users

March 2, 2015
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Poo to Peaches – Educating the Next Generation of Composting Toilet Users

Guest post by Stephen Thomas of Watershed Management Group. Every day, the average person flushes 10 gallons of clean drinking water down the toilet. This constitutes a waste of two precious resources: scarce water supplies and human manure, which could instead be composted to...

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World Toilet Day 2014 Recap

December 8, 2014
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World Toilet Day 2014 Recap

World Toilet Day on November 19 brought such a deluge of articles, new reports, infographics, and videos that it’s taken us until now to work through them.  International media outlets, when compared to those in the United States, often better convey dynamic technicalities of...

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Celebrating a Gender-Inclusive World Toilet Day

November 18, 2014
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Celebrating a Gender-Inclusive World Toilet Day

World Toilet Day is now officially celebrated by the United Nations every year on November 19th to bring attention to the 2.5 billion of our fellow humans who lack access to clean safe toilets.  In the United States, clean, comfortable restrooms are a common expectation whether we...

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Back to School: Free Course in Sanitation Systems & Technologies

October 5, 2014
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Providing toilets to 2.4 billion of our fellow humans without them and building sanitary infrastructure that controls the spread of Ebola and other contagious killers calls for widespread training. Starting October 13, 2014, Eawag, (the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology), in collaboration with EPFL (the École Polytechnique...

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GottaGo! campaigning for public toilets in Ottawa

May 15, 2014
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GottaGo! campaigning for public toilets in Ottawa

This guest blog post is from Joan Kuyek of GottaGo!. The GottaGo! campaign in Ottawa, Canada’s capital city, is advocating for a network of open clean, accessible public toilets and water fountains in key places in the region. Currently, the only public toilets in...

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Do you Poop Sustainably? Alternative Toilets Save Water & ReCycle Waste

March 4, 2014
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Do you Poop Sustainably? Alternative Toilets Save Water & ReCycle Waste

This guest blog post is from Atara Jaffe. Sustainability. From mainstream media to blogs, sustainability is not just a buzzword, but is frequently used as a term to embody practices related to survival. Everyone from homeowners to architects are incorporating “sustainability” tactics to slowly transform...

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BioLoos helping meet needs of 600 million toilet-less Indians

December 24, 2013
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BioLoos helping meet needs of 600 million toilet-less Indians

This guest blog post is from Sanjay Banka. At PHLUSH, we’ve been tracking some of the cool new technologies in India. After noticing the social enterprise awards won by Banka BioLoo, we suggested they write for our readers. Mixing business with socio-environmental good is...

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C’mon Give a Shi_t!

November 19, 2013
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C’mon Give a Shi_t!

This guest blog post is from Doneice Sandoval of Lava Mae. When you think about people who lack access to sanitation, people in Africa and India or other third-world countries come to mind. You don’t think of people in the U.S. The truth, however, is that...

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Reflect Before You Flush

November 18, 2013
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Reflect Before You Flush

This guest blog post is by John Gonzalez from the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District for World Toilet Day 2013. Please check out our ToiletsUSA page for more info. Follow #ToiletsUSA, #LiftTheLid, and #CelebrateTheToilet. Your ability to “flush and forget” is taken for granted. Period. In the...

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School Toilets are Key to Girls’ Education: Virtual Conference Nov 21

November 15, 2013
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School Toilets are Key to Girls’ Education: Virtual Conference Nov 21

This guest blog post is from Murat Sahin from UNICEF for World Toilet Day 2013. Please check out our ToiletsUSA page for more info. Follow #ToiletsUSA, #LiftTheLid, and #CelebrateTheToilet. The theme of the second annual Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) Virtual Conference to be held on 21...

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What is the value of a restroom?

November 11, 2013
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What is the value of a restroom?

This guest blog post is from Kyle Earlywine from Green Flush Technologies for World Toilet Day 2013. Please check out our ToiletsUSA page for more info. Follow #ToiletsUSA, #LiftTheLid, and #CelebrateTheToilet. At risk of sounding like an old Mastercard commercial, some things are just priceless –...

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Our Mission Through education and advocacy, PHLUSH helps local governments and citizen groups to provide equitable public restroom availability and to prepare for a pipe-breaking seismic event with appropriate ecological toilet systems.

Our Vision Toilet availability is a human right and well-designed sanitation systems restore health to our cities, our waters and our soils.

Public Hygiene Lets Us Stay Human (PHLUSH) was founded in Portland, Oregon and today collaborates with groups across North America.

PHLUSH is a member of the World Toilet Organization and a partner in the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance.

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