First Women's Urinal in UK Launched at Glastonbury Festival
The UK's first public women's urinal will be launched at this year's Glastonbury Festival in late June to cater for all the female festival goers.The designers and co-founders of PEEQUAL, Amber Probyn and Hazel McShane, have had their women's urinals trialled at The Love Saves the Day two-day festival in Bristol last week. The two entrepreneurs founded the company after studying at the University of Bristol together and then had won the New Enterprise Competition for the PEEQUAL design.Probyn and McShane have secured more than £250,000 in funding and started manufacturing the urinals.
Probyn said: "This is a big deal for us. People don't want to go to festivals because of the toilet provision. Nobody likes the experience of portable toilets, they are dark and smell a lot, it's not a desirable thing. We will have 40 urinals in total near to the Pyramid Stage and in the Stone Circle. And we are working with WaterAid for the first time, who will be cleaning the units and explaining to women how to use them."The aim for the urinals is to save women time so they do not queue to use the toilet. The urinals are made from 100 per cent recyclable materials and available as a flat-pack. It is easy to transport the urinals and can be set up for different spaces.The urinals will be situated on raised platforms with overlapping screens instead of doors.
Each urinal will be open-air to prevent any unpleasant odours and will be touch-free with toilet paper and hand sanitiser on site. McShane said: "Women shouldn't have to wait in longer queues for something as simple as going for a pee and PEEQUAL significantly reduces women's time spent queuing so they can get back to doing what they actually paid for – enjoying the festival."Ahead of the trial at Glastonbury Festival, the co-founders hope to feature at more festivals and running events such as marathons. They are also looking at more permanent structures for public places such as shopping centres and airports.