Would you use a urinal for women? Invention claims to be ‘six times quicker’ to use than a regular toilet as festival season approaches

Two British inventors of a ‘women’s urinal’ are trying to expand their business to other European countries for the first time.

Amber Probyn, 25, and Hazel McShane, 26, designed the hands-free ‘Peequal’ as part of a masters project at the University of Bristol to solve a ‘real world problem’.

They were inspired to create the flatpack device – in which six units fit into a pizza structure – after queuing for hours at music festivals in Britain.

There are no doors or roof and each toilet, which is designed for squatting rather than sitting on, is blocked from outside view by cleverly placed curved walls, which are so short that women can lean over the top while urinating. to look.

The team has now raised £500,000 in investment, which they are using to design the product, the BBC reports.

This year, Amber and Hazel hope to bring the urinals to Germany and the Netherlands for the first time.

They have about 134 units so far – and more deals are currently in the works with festival operators.

Peequal has already trialled the urinals at the Glastonbury, Download and Pride festivals in 2023, as well as the London Marathon.

The design allows a larger number of urinals to fit into a smaller space and the maker claims the ‘fast-track toilet’ is six times faster to use than a traditional toilet.

It also reduces a festival’s carbon footprint as the ‘peequals’ can be flat packed and loaded onto trucks, reducing the number of vehicles required to transport them compared to a traditional booth.

The boat-like design also means splashes are minimized and clothes can fall down the front.

Their website says: ‘Our mission is to pioneer pee equality for all women, one pee at a time.

“We promote gender equality by giving women choices, pushing boundaries by challenging the status quo, questioning the narrative by staying curious and always spending time having fun because life is for living.”

Ms McShane has previously said: ‘We are building a team to take our urinals to festivals, sporting events, outdoor shows and more.

‘We are very proud to be changing the way women urinate, and doing so safely, reducing time spent in queues.

“Because our urinals are modular and flat-packed, just one of our festival orders will take 70 trucks – or 140 truck trips – off the road this summer.”

However, they added that they are not trying to “revolutionize the toilet,” but rather they are trying to speed things up for women who “just want to pee,” the researchers said. Today FM.

They also hope to be more environmentally friendly by making the units from plastic collected from the sea and are also in discussions with a company about the possibility of turning the collected urine into fertilizer.

The entrepreneurs, who graduated from the University of Bristol in 2020, found that women spend up to 34 times longer in queues than men because there are ten male urinals for every public women’s toilet.

And once they get to the front of the queue, up to 80 percent of women still squat over the toilet seat to avoid bacteria.

They told it too Today FM: ‘There are so many elements in the design. It’s out in the open and without touching.”

Mrs Probyn and Mrs McShane also told us BBC They used to have to choose between going to the toilet or getting food when they worked at music festivals because the queues were so long.

The pair spoke to more than 2,000 women in Bristol in focus groups and pubs before launching their urinal, which they claim will cut queues.

Ms McShane said the toilet is on a pedestal but is an adaptation of a hole in the ground.

She said: ‘It’s designed like a boat to minimize back splash and also to have a small area at the front for your clothes.’

They’ve designed the shape of the toilet bowl to accommodate different squatting positions – low, high and wide – meaning the urinals are suitable for most women.

Ms Probyn added that the time spent queuing to use the ladies ‘wasted hours of women’s lives’.

“At the start of the day, you might look at this women’s urinal and think, ‘I’m not sure about that,'” she explained. “But after a few bevs, and after you’ve been waiting in line for about 15 minutes, this option suddenly becomes much more attractive.”

The new urinal, which can be transported flat and set up in three different ways, is said to produce 98 percent less CO2 than other portable toilets and is made from 100 percent recyclable materials.

When images of the new design were shared online, some women expressed grievances but praised the women for looking into the issue.

Someone commented: ‘I’m all for festival toilet queues moving six times faster and people being ten times less likely to touch a portaloo! …but I’m not sure how I feel about having my head above the parapet while I pee.”

Others were more critical, as one said: ‘What was the feedback, because it looks awful! When I pull down my clothes and underwear, I want full height walls and a roof plus a real toilet. What we need are more up-to-date private toilets for women, this is not a solution to long queues.’

Another added: ‘No roof above, nice when it rains.’