Nov. 19 is World Toilet Day, a global event flush with potential. Puns aside, it’s a serious awareness campaign that illustrates how access to a toilet can affect the health, safety and dignity of a community.
The sound of a flushing toilet is one often taken for granted in lots of homes, businesses and facilities.
Modern waste disposal for many is just a push of the handle away. But for many less developed nations and parts of the U.S., toilets are a luxury most can only wish for.
Laura Allen of the water conservation group Greywater Action, says this lack of access is problematic.
“In Eugene, we have an unhoused population that doesn't have access to sanitation,” she told KLCC. “If there's a disaster, a wastewater treatment plant can have issues. They're often low lying. So flooding, fires, that can jeopardize a whole community's sanitation access.”
Allen said she’s been involved with World Toilet Day since 2019, and past presentations have been well received by eco-conscious residents of Eugene-Springfield. She added that with the Cascadian event potentially happening any time now, educating people about dry sanitation (waterless toilets) is a great way to plan for an earthquake or similar disaster where water and sewage systems may be disrupted for weeks or longer.
Another topic for this year's presentation will be on compost toilets, where human excrement – called “humanure” - is gathered on a community scale for composting.
“Humanure is short for human manure," said Allen. "We don't really think about it that way usually. But it's compost, it has nutrients in it.”
Speakers for the World Toilet Day program include Allen, a founding member of Greywater Action, and Kory Russel from the University of Oregon, who’ll talk about sanitation as another form of disaster preparedness. Ole Ersson from Kailash Ecovillage in Portland will discuss their permitted community-scale compost toilet system that uses humanure from local apartments and tiny houses. And rounding out the list is Tao Orion, an instructor in the Oregon State University Permaculture program who consults on holistic farm, forest, and restoration planning through her company Resilience Permaculture Design, LLC.
The first World Toilet Day was held in 2001, and became a United Nations observance in 2013. Eugene’s 2026 World Toilet Day event takes place Wednesday evening beginning at 6 p.m. at Whirled Pies, 199 W 8th Ave. Trivia, games, and information on compost toilets will be featured.
