User:JustinePorto/Public toilets in the Netherlands

Public toilets in the Netherlands are relatively common at eight per 100,000 people. Public urinals are more common as a means of preventing open urination by intoxicated men. Public toilets often cost in the range of €0.50 to €1.00 though the presence of pay toilets has been on the decline since the 2010s. Women have protested the lack of toilets in the city.

Public toilets
The local word for public toilet is toilet.

A 2021 study found there were eight public toilets per 100,000 people. Because of high levels of alcohol consumption by men, there were a large number of open public urinals on the streets in the Netherlands in 2017, with 35 public urinals compared to 3 sit-style public flush toilets. Men would use them as an opportunity to socialize.

One place people use when there is a lack of public toilets are the facilities at fast food style restaurants. In cities like Amsterdam, public toilets often cost money to use, in the range of €0.50 to €1.00, and have a time limit of 15 minutes. They often provide toilet paper. Many of the ones set up as self-contained units on the street are self-disinfecting. The volume of pay toilets has been decreasing since the 2010s.

There is a Euro Key, which allows people with disabilities to have it to access 12,000 otherwise locked public toilets in Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands, Slovakia and Switzerland.

The most common type of toilet is a sit toilet. Western Europe tends to use flush toilets, with some older public toilets possibly having pull cords instead of handles or buttons.

History
Despite toilet paper being used in parts of China starting in the mid-800s, paper was expensive to produce and considered valuable; this meant most places did not start using toilet paper until relatively late. The lack of public toilets caused a stink on the streets in major cities in the 1850s. Flush toilets were introduced in Europe during the 1860s and soon became quite popular.

A woman in Amsterdam was fined by a judge in 2017 for engaging in public urination. The judge said the lack of public toilets for women was no excuse and that the woman should have used public urinals to relieve herself instead. He said, "It would not be pleasant but it can be done." In September 2017, women in Amsterdam protested the lack of women's public toilets in the city.