How a picture of a fly reduced washroom cleaning costs by 8%

IndustryHealth
Reading time5 min read

Abstract

Men’s lack of precision when aiming into the toilet increases the cleaning costs of public washrooms; Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport was no exception.1 The airport wanted to improve urinal aim to reduce total cleaning costs. As a simple and inexpensive way to achieve such goals, Schiphol Airport introduced its urinal flies.

By etching an image of a fly inside every urinal, Schiphol Airport hoped to nudge men to aim at the fly improving overall aim.1 Implementing this physical design change reduced spillage by 80%, and the budget for cleaning public toilets by 8%.

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Sources

  1. Evans-Pritchard, B. (2013). Aiming to reduce cleaning costs. Works That Work. https://worksthatwork.com/1/urinal-fly
  2. Waterless Co. Inc. (2016, November 23). Why facility managers need to know about urinal splash back. https://www.waterless.com/blog/why-facility-managers-need-to-know-about-urinal-splash-back
  3. Flanagan, A. E., & Tanner, J. C. (2016). A framework for evaluating behavior change in international development operations (IEG Working Paper 2016/No. 2). Independent Evaluation Group. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/25872/110890-WP-PUBLIC.pdf?sequence=1

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