Posts Tagged ‘ public restroom advocacy ’

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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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. In her interview with people sheltering in a Rest Stop...

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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 living in the city’s East Village. Today 444 San Diegans...

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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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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 in safe and accessible toilets for all people (families, children,...

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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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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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Time for Portland Parks to take toilets seriously

January 27, 2012
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The cost-cutting recommendations of Portland Parks and Recreation’s Budget Advisory Committee call for 189 toilet closures    The proposal is for Parks to replace half the number of closed stalls with plastic portables while laying off the Parks Technicians who understand the social environment and perform many other duties besides cleaning restrooms and hauling away trash. (UPDATE: PP&R’s...

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Celebrate First Flush of Portland Loo #5 at 1 pm Jan 31st

January 26, 2012
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Celebrate First Flush of Portland Loo #5 at 1 pm Jan 31st

Isn’t it weirdly cool that we live in a city that celebrates the first flush of every new Portland Loo?  Actually, these repeated inaugurals tell us something.  A product has met a need.  The city has provided a service citizens think is important. People are using the Loo and talking about it.  The co-location...

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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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