When you attend outdoor events like concerts you often see temporary public restrooms set up so that there are enough places for the number of people expected at the event to go and relieve themselves. Some places like public campgrounds have these outdoor facilities established all year long for people to use. You may not have ever thought about the facility cleaning of these portable bathrooms.

Facility cleaning of portable restrooms requires a truck with a tank on it to haul away the waste that has been deposited in the facility since the last cleaning. The trucks have hoses attached to them that are placed inside the toilet so the waste can be suctioned through the hose and into the storage tank on the back of the truck.

The second stage of facility cleaning for these outdoor toilets is for the interior of the toilet to be hosed down with clean water. Soap is applied to all of the surfaces inside the toilet like you were soaping a car to be washed. The maintenance crew will have mops on long handles so they can reach every corner of the interior of the bathroom.

After the facility cleaning is completed the maintenance crew will place a chemical inside the tank of the toilet to help eliminate odors that build up between cleanings. The chemicals also help to reduce the amount of bugs, like flies, that will be drawn to the toilet.

The cleaning person will stock the toilet with toilet tissue, and if there is a urinal in the facility they generally place an odor reducing wafer above the urinal. Most of the outdoor toilets are cleaned on a weekly basis, but there are some that are cleaned less frequently. The ones cleaned less frequently are the ones that have fewer people expected to visit them.

When the outdoor toilets are temporary, like the ones at construction sites, and the ones set up for one night events, or for week long events, they are picked up and hauled back to their storage lot before they are cleansed. Once they are taken back to their storage lot they are thoroughly cleansed with a high pressure hose and anti-bacterial cleansers.

Most people do not give the cleaning of these public restrooms much thought, but the next time you have to use one of them take the time to be thankful for the people who do this job for us all.