PHLUSH – Public Hygiene Lets Us Stay Human

PHLUSH helps local governments and citizen groups to advance sanitation justice, through equitable public restroom access, and readiness for sanitation disasters with alternative  toilet systems. PHLUSH is a sanitation justice advocacy hub. We build policy tools to help communities achieve:

• More and better public restrooms;  
• Life-saving post-disaster sanitation; and 
• Sustainable sanitation technology that makes housing more affordable.

OUR CURRENT PROJECT is designing a booth and materials to raise awareness about sanitation during disasters. In major disasters, more people die from dysentery than from the initial shock. Simple DIY tools can save many lives. We estimate a cost of $8000 to develop the signage and outreach materials. The booth will debut at Oregon Country Fair this July, which attracts 45,000 people.

Founded in 2005, in Portland, to open more – and better! – public toilets, our collaboration with a wide range of stakeholders created a new kind of urban amenity: The Portland Loo. 

When geologists learned that the Pacific Northwest has catastrophic earthquakes every few centuries, PHLUSH joined a fact-finding trip to New Zealand after its 2011 quake, to study their innovative Twin-Bucket Toilet. We published a popular how-to brochure, and now many emergency preparedness agencies across North America recommend it

One of our founders retired to Port Townsend, and learned that rural septic systems were prohibitively expensive to install and repair, making housing unaffordable for many. Unrepaired septic systems leach bacteria into the local shellfish beds. We and others realized that dry composting toilets would solve both problems, and are educating and lobbying on the issue.

PHLUSH works by distilling research and experience across the world wide sanitation justice movement, into practical tools for local activists and officials.