Posts Tagged ‘ advocacy ’

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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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 transit center in Washington State were dismayed to find they...

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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 poop. We here at the other PHLUSH (Public Hygiene Lets...

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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 gender-neutral toilet rooms to ensure greater privacy. This expansion of...

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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 greywater systems. Now that much of the extensive testimony organized...

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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 action on ecological sanitation at UCSC and beyond. With the...

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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 human right and advocate for building urban public restrooms that...

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Let’s Legalize Composting & UD toilets in US

August 3, 2014
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Let’s Legalize Composting & UD toilets in US

Our friends at Recode have drafted model code for composting toilets with urine diversion (UD) and IAMPO is preparing to vote on it. This Portland-based group of scientists and policy advocates have made spectacular progress. Now Recode is calling on us to help make history. Please consider a tax-deductible donation to enable Recode’s Director to travel to California to address IAMPO officials. Details are...

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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 Ottawa are in recreation centres, libraries and large parks. When the...

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Stories from the Street: PSU team explores toiletlessness

July 1, 2013
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Stories from the Street: PSU team explores toiletlessness

Students from Portland State University’s Nohad A. Toulan School of Urban Affairs and Planning, have recently compled a project on the consequences of toiletlessness. After spending the winter academic term on background and planning, the Right to Relief team spent the spring term exploring the issues in collaboration with PHLUSH.  They hit the streets, announced...

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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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