We Need Free Public Toilets (including for homeless people)
Free public toilets used to be everywhere. But now council budgets have gone down, and many places (especially in tourist towns) charge up to £1 to just spend a penny.
This not only deters tourists, but it also means that local residents (especially those who are older and have medical conditions) either don’t go out, or even worse, don’t drink water, as they are too worried about having to find a public loo.
Why Free Public Toilets Matter
Since the late 1990s, the UK has lost nearly half of its public toilets. Numbers have dropped, with one Oxford Victorian public toilet now a luxury boutique hotel.
Yet people with health conditions or parents with children and those with disabilities, now struggle to find anywhere to visit the toilet, change nappies or change incontinence pads.
Councils blame lack of funds. But if your residents can’t cope, and you are losing tourism income – it’s not very good economically either.
Just like installing free public water fountains, using the loo should be a public right, coming from funds used to pay council tax.
Big Issue has a shocking report, of an elderly person with bladder problems, who ended up urinating in an optician, due to not being able to find a free public toilet nearby.
As a human species, there are five things we need to do, to survive in order to live. We have to eat, sleep, drink, breathe and go to the toilet. Failure to do any of those five things makes us sick, dizzy, disorientated. And that can lead to high blood pressure, stroke and in the end, death. Raymond Martin, British Toilet Association
- Explore the Great British Toilet Map to show exactly where toilets are missing in your area. The map is open and public—use it to back up your argument when contacting leaders. You can do the same in the capital at Toilets 4 London.
- If toilets are blocked with rubbish or litter, complain (with photos) at Fix My Street. These are sent off to councils (but they are made public, so tend to get fixed sooner).
- The blogger at London in Real Life has a super post for locals on how and where to find public loos. She also includes a dictionary of slang terms (she’s American). Noting that the word ‘karzy’ can also mean ‘brothel’, so be careful where you use it!
Design Choices and Accessibility
England has an ageing population, plus there are millions of disabled people (including children) who need public loos that are suitable for them.
Changing Places toilets are designed for people who need extra help, such as adult-sized changing benches, hoists, privacy curtains and plenty of turning space.
Many accessible loos across the UK use the RADAR key system to control entry. This costs around £5 and gives access to disabled people and their carers to over 10,000 accessible toilets in public spaces, train stations, parks, and shopping centres.
Uribag (possibly free on the NHS, ask your GP) is a latex canister is a portable urinal for men (just pee, empty on the kerb, then wash at home to use again). The female version is designed for bedbound patients. Another option is Shewee (pee without undressing) .
Free Public Toilets for Homeless People
Homeless people also don’t have anywhere to go to the loo. So they end up peeing in parks, and even worse (yet removing clothes to use the toilet in a public place, puts them at risk of public indecency offenses).
If there are no public loos or hostels nearby, removing their trousers when a child is walking by, could mean they end up with a criminal record.
In San Francisco, there are public toilets (free and with paid cleaners) for homeless people. These enable people to use the bathroom and wash their hands, but also include a place to deposit used needles and used poop bags, for those who live with dogs.
This makes life not just better for them, but safer for the wider community, as there are no used needles littered on streets and in parks.
Eco Feminine Care in Public Toilets
Enough already with the plastic-wrapped tampons and towels. Grace and Green offers wholesale zero waste plastic-free feminine care for public loos and workplaces. This means less plastic waste, so that’s also cheaper for councils, as all items are biodegradable. Use with biodegradable hand wash.
Forest-Friendly Toilet Paper & Hand Towels
- Forest-friendly toilet paper (in plastic-free packaging) works out cheaper and stops deforestation. The same brands also offer forest-friendly paper towels (unless you use air-dryers).
- The Splash Lab offers high-speed hand dryers with a smaller impact on the planet, due to a high-speed dry time of 15 seconds.
Eco Cleaning for Public Bathrooms
- Waterless Urinals don’t smell and are perfect for male toilets. Use with Delphis Eco urinal blocks (these contain friendly bacteria to remove molecules that cause smells and blockages).
- Modern composting toilets are ideal for off-grid areas like allotments and church yards, and again don’t smell, and can produce free garden compost for parks.
- Delphis Eco offers eco-friendly commercial cleaning products for public toilets, suitable for all surfaces. Sold in recycled plastic bottles.
Hippo the Watersaver is a good low-cost device for older toilets that are not water-efficient (a more efficient and safer version of putting a brick in the cistern). This also saves the council money, so it can be used on better services.
Issues with Gender-Neutral Toilets?
The news is all over this at present, the controversial law where people who identify themselves as a different sex, are allowed to visit the toilet of another (for instance, a male who identifies as a woman can visit a female toilet).
This law was recently banned, and so the obvious solution is to have three toilets, to keep everyone happy. But again many councils won’t fund them.
Concept Cubicle Systems has been designing gender-neutral toilets for years, which are the obvious answer. The company say that their toilets are cheap to install, shorten queues, promote equity and allow children to be safely accompanied.
