Issue link: http://psai.uberflip.com/i/1402657
10 I PSAI Association Insight, July 7, 2021 Much has been written about the advent of the portable restroom industry as we know it today. Its roots can be traced to the World War II US Naval Shipyards in Long Beach, California and soon led to early operators in our industry building and servicing wooden units throughout the next decades. These heavy, porous restrooms were in use into the early 1970s, though they had begun to disappear in the 1960s. Today most units are made of polyethylene plastic. These restrooms first became available in the late 1970s and early 1980s; by the late 80s and early 90s, they were the most prevalent choice of the operators in our industry. Some 30 years later, this same plastic—refined slightly over the years—continues to be the major component of portable restroom units sold in the USA and in most places around the world. But what happened in between these two periods? When the limits and downsides of wood became too challenging for a growing portable sanitation industry, but inventors' ingenuity had not yet given us plastic, fiberglass filled the bill. The "Fiberglass Era" in our industry is often mentioned only in passing – an intermediary step in our progress to the modern plastic portable restroom. But we would be remiss if we did not take the time to record and tell you about this important product that bridged the gap between wood and plastic. As part of our 50th Anniversary Celebration, we wanted to know: • How and when did fiberglass units come into existence? • Why was fiberglass used as opposed to other materials? • Why were these units eventually replaced by units of polyethylene plastic? Demand exceeds supply of wooden units. The World War II shipyards may have been the beginning for portable sanitation as we know it today, but things really took off in the post-war years. A period of economic expansion increased demand for many things, and that demand often brought a place for portable restrooms to play a role. • Plants that had produced materials for war now converted to manufacturing consumer products. Some 11 million men and women left the military between 1945 and 1960. • The Gross National Product (GNP) – the total value of goods produced, and ser- vices provided – rose from $200B in 1940 to $300B in 1950 to $400B in 1970 (doubling the number from 1940). • The Housing Boom began and by the 1950s, some 25% of Americans lived in the suburbs. By the 1970s, that figure had increased to just under 40%. • New car sales doubled between 1945 and 1955. All of these things meant construction sites, recreation areas, agriculture, and outdoor events were abundant. For a period, the new portable restroom industry was able to meet product demand as operators built and then serviced their own units on an as-needed basis. These early wood units were functional and served the basic needs of the customer. In a time before standards existed for the nascent industry, the wood units were acceptable and a definite Fiberglass Units – The Bridge Between Wood and Plastic Jeff Wigley, PSAI Past President