
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, September 7, 1993                   TAG: 9309030410
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHICAGO                                LENGTH: Medium

TIDY TOILETS

Here's an idea sure to make many long-distance travelers flush with excitement: a self-cleaning restroom that promises to take the revulsion out of gas station pit stops.

Prototypes are being tested at two Amoco stations, in the Chicago suburb of Bolingbrook and in Indianapolis. A third is scheduled to open, also in the Chicago area, in a few months, according to Self Cleaning Environments of Santa Monica, Calif., which makes the $23,000 product.

Employees and customers have, literally, breathed a sigh of relief when they stepped into the 3-by-7-foot facilities.

"Nasty, disgusting, grungy," Susan Babis, an 18-year-old employee at the Bolingbrook station, said of the toilet before the self-cleaning prototype was installed.

Josie Pippins, a 39-year-old customer from Columbus, Miss., said she liked the automatic flushing because, "you know it's going to be clean."

Chicago-based Amoco will evaluate tests of the self-cleaning toilets, which customers can use free of charge, before deciding whether to install them at stations nationwide, according to company spokesman Jim Fair.

John Jordan, manager of the Bolingbrook gas station, said he had trouble getting employees to work the late-night cleanup shift before the tidy toilets were installed.

Employees "would often make excuses as to why the toilet wasn't cleaned, and I'd wind up cleaning the toilet when I got in at 5 in the morning," he said.

Now the turn of a key closes most of the washroom and activates 39 high-pressure water nozzles that scrub the room much like a dishwasher washes dishes. In about 25 minutes, the aluminum unit is washed, soaked, rinsed and blown dry. Toilet paper and paper towels are located outside the cleaning area, and that part still has to be mopped manually.

New York City last year tested free-standing public toilets that employ similar technology. The 25-cent-per-use toilets, which automatically wash the floor and commode, are designed by Paris-based JCDecaux.

Glenwood Garvey, an architect-engineer and president of Self Cleaning Environments, said his 3-year-old, privately held company will market a home-use version in three to five years.

by CNB