Sanisette is a registered trademark for a self-contained, self-cleaning, unisex, public toilet pioneered by the French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 company JCDecaux

JCDecaux

JCDecaux Group is a multinational corporation based in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, that is active primarily in advertising....

. These toilets (and other similar toilets) are a common sight in several major cities of the world, but they are perhaps most closely associated with the city of Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, where they are ubiquitous. In the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 they (along with Automated Public Conveniences of other brands) are known informally as "Superloos".

Description

The sanisette contains a toilet hidden behind a door that opens when a button is pressed or, in the case of a pay toilet

Pay toilet

A pay toilet is a public toilet that requires money payment of any individual to use. It may be street furniture or be inside a building, e.g. a mall, department store, railway station, restaurant, etc. The reason for charging money for using toilets usually is for the maintenance of the...

, a coin inserted into a control panel on the outside of the toilet. A washbasin is provided as well (the style varies with the model of sanisette). When a user enters the toilet, the door closes to provide privacy. After the user has finished using the toilet, he exits and the door closes again. A wash cycle then begins inside the toilet, and the toilet fixture itself is scrubbed and disinfected automatically. After about sixty seconds, the toilet is again ready for use.

Special models exist for disabled users, although recent versions of sanisettes are designed to accommodate users in wheelchairs as well as the able-bodied. Some sanisettes are designed to mount flush within a wall (sometimes seen in Paris Métro

Paris Métro

The Paris Métro or Métropolitain is the rapid transit metro system in Paris, France. It has become a symbol of the city, noted for its density within the city limits and its uniform architecture influenced by Art Nouveau. The network's sixteen lines are mostly underground and run to 214 km ...

 stations), or within decorative outdoor Morris column

Morris column

Advertising columns or morris columns are cylindrical outdoor sidewalk structures with a characteristic style that are used for advertising and other purposes. They are common in the city of Berlin, Germany, where the first 100 columns were installed in 1855. Advertising columns were invented by...

s. Most sanisettes include indicators of their availability: ready, occupied, cycling (self-cleaning), or out of service. Sanisettes may be configured to require coins or to operate for free at the push of a button.

Sanisettes are usually configured to open the door after a preset period (typically 15 minutes) to discourage vagrant

Vagrancy (people)

A vagrant is a person in poverty, who wanders from place to place without a home or regular employment or income.-Definition:A vagrant is "a person without a settled home or regular work who wanders from place to place and lives by begging;" vagrancy is the condition of such persons.-History:In...

s. The door cannot be opened from the outside unless the sanisette is available and a coin is inserted (or the appropriate button is pushed). A handle on the inside of the sanisette door allows it to be opened from the inside at any time (in recent versions, the door opens at the push of a button, but there is still a handle for emergencies).

Advantages and disadvantages

Sanisettes replace street urinals (particularly in Paris). Their unisex

Unisex

Unisex stands for the meaning that either gender or sex will be able to, but can also be another term for gender-blindness.The term was coined in the 1962 and was used fairly informally...

 design allows them to be used by both men and women, for both urination

Urination

Urination, also known as micturition, voiding, peeing, weeing, pissing, and more rarely, emiction, is the ejection of urine from the urinary bladder through the urethra to the outside of the body. In healthy humans the process of urination is under voluntary control...

 and defecation

Defecation

Defecation is the final act of digestion by which organisms eliminate solid, semisolid or liquid waste material from the digestive tract via the anus. Waves of muscular contraction known as peristalsis in the walls of the colon move fecal matter through the digestive tract towards the rectum...

. Their self-cleaning mechanism keeps them cleaner and helps reduce odours. Some models provide recorded music for the user. The locking door provides greater privacy than many older facilities.

Sanisettes carry a warning that young children must not be allowed to use the toilet alone as the weight sensor may not detect a small child, allowing the cleaning cycle to run with a child inside.

Ordinary sanisettes are too small to be used by users in wheelchair

Wheelchair

A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, designed to be a replacement for walking. The device comes in variations where it is propelled by motors or by the seated occupant turning the rear wheels by hand. Often there are handles behind the seat for someone else to do the pushing...

s, so special wheelchair-friendly sanisettes have been designed.

In some areas, sanisettes are improperly used for drug dealing, drug use

Recreational drug use

Recreational drug use is the use of a drug, usually psychoactive, with the intention of creating or enhancing recreational experience. Such use is controversial, however, often being considered to be also drug abuse, and it is often illegal...

, and prostitution

Prostitution

Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...

.

Sanisettes in Paris

The city of Paris rents sanisettes from a subcontractor for about €

Euro

The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...

1200 per month. There are some 420 sanisettes in the city, and they are used about three million times a year. The city pays some €6m per year to the JC Decaux company to operate and maintain the sanisettes.

Originally all sanisettes in Paris were pay toilets, priced at 40 cent per use (in 2002). In 2003, a dozen or so sanisettes were converted to free operation, particularly near areas where homeless people congregate. In 2004, the same conversion was carried out on the 110 sanisettes in the city's parks and gardens. Finally, the city of Paris decided to convert all its sanisettes to free operation beginning in mid-February 2006 (the complete conversion will be finished by 2014).

In 2009, the city of Paris upgraded all sanisettes to a newer version with a number of new features and changes (pictured in this article).

Sanisettes have replaced vespasiennes (street urinals) also known as Pissoirs, of which there were more than 1200 in Paris back in the 1930s. The only surviving vespasienne in Paris is on the boulevard Arago, and is still regularly used.