Toronto could be getting robotic self-cleaning public washrooms

Public potty problems might soon be a thing of the past in Toronto, as one Quebec company is making a bid to outfit the city with futuristic self-cleaning public washrooms.

Let's be real: using a public washroom in Toronto almost exclusively comes out of an urgent necessity rather than any real desire, and, despite the best efforts of city workers, the experience frequently ends up being... icky... at best — but that could soon be changing.

According to the City Hall Watcher, Quebec-based company Enterprises Urben Blu, which specializes in robotic self-cleaning public washrooms, is gearing up to pitch their inventions to Toronto City Hall in an effort to fix the city's very real public washroom problem.

According to Urben Blu, their washrooms are a solution to the maintenance and vandalism problems that can cause public washrooms to become, well, less than ideal. Here's how they work.

Each smart washroom is connected to an app that can be accessed via phone, tablet or computer, where admins can engage a cleaning sequence whenever needed or program a cycle to clean the washroom at regular intervals.

After each use, the toilet bowl automatically self-cleans and disinfects, while high-pressure water sprinklers clean the floor as required — meaning no more navigating ominous brown smears and errant toilet paper on the floor when you use the restroom.

Urben Blu.

The washrooms are also programmable to open and close according to set 'business hours' (ha!) and send alerts to administrators when toilet paper or soap runs out, or for any other washroom-related concerns.

The washrooms are pre-built in a factory, which saves the time, cost and labour associated with a lengthy build-out process, and require, in theory, less maintenance than your good, old-fashioned john.

Urben Blu also claims that the washrooms are constructed using "the most vandal-resistant materials on the market," which further saves on maintenance requirements.

This wouldn't be the first time that Toronto has experimented with automated toilets, though.

Back in the 2010s, the city erected a handful (of what was meant to be 20) of $400,000 coin-operated, automated toilets. Lo and behold, the project was a total flush, with the washrooms frequently breaking down, conjuring long lines and, because this is Toronto, frequently getting co-opted as studio apartments for the city's unhoused. And, hey, I can't blame them.

But that was then, and this is now. Automated toilet tech has, I can only imagine, seen leaps and bounds since that deal was first inked in 2007, so the solution at hand is still an optimistic one.

The company has already seen success with installs across North America, including municipalities like Waterloo, Kenora, Centre Wellington and Ajax, so perhaps Toronto might just be the next to do its business, so to speak, with Urben Blu.

Hey, we have smartphones, smart cars and smart homes — isn't it about time for smart washrooms, anyway?