Issue link: http://psai.uberflip.com/i/1263419
ASSOCIATIONINSIGHT Portable Sanitation Association International News BIWEEKLY EDITION JUNE 24, 2020 Page 17 A Tipping Point for Portable Sanitation By Karleen Kos, PSAI Executive Director 1 "I wish it need not have happened in my lifetime," said Frodo. "So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us." —JRR Tolkien, Lord of the Rings Who knows what the world will be like the day you are reading this column? As I write it in early April, things are constantly changing with new data, new stories, and new warnings about COVID-19. It seems pretty clear that whatever is happening, it isn't business as usual. Our lives are being transformed. Back in the year 2000, Malcolm Gladwell wrote a book called The Tipping Point. In it, he explored how society makes changes—big changes— seemingly out of nowhere. What he found is this: "Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread like viruses do." The PSAI's Education Initiative Committee studied that book and used its concepts in the development of our long-term plan to transform the image of portable sanitation. We know how valuable portable sanitation is, yet historically it has not gotten the respect it deserves. We also know that to change popular opinions from, "oh gross!" to "oh, thank goodness!" it will take a lot of hard work over many years educating people, raising standards, and holding ourselves accountable. That's what changing hearts and minds requires when you do it bit by bit. Sometimes, fate intervenes. Gladwell found that occasionally ideas get some unexpected help from external circumstances. It's called "context," and simply put, when a great idea is given a boost by events that are happening in the world, a tipping point is reached and suddenly the great idea becomes obvious to everyone. It spreads like a good virus. I submit that this terrible, disruptive COVID-19 pandemic can be portable sanitation's tipping point. Consider the following: • Hand washing is "suddenly" getting the attention it deserves. The CDC has called hand washing a "do it yourself vaccine" for years. OSHA standards always required the availability of hand wash facilities on job sites. It was only with COVID-19 that people demanded them as a condition of working at all. 1 Author's Note: In early April 2020 when all the uncertainties of COVID-19 were still new, I sat down to write a column for the June issue of PRO magazine. While some things have changed and we know a bit more about where the pandemic is headed than we did a few months ago, the ideas in this article have not changed. In fact, they are truer than ever. Continued on page 18