SINGAPORE: After a study from Singapore Management University (SMU) showed that restrooms found at coffee shops are the dirtiest across the city-state, Singaporeans on Reddit expressed disappointment and asked why this is the case when coffee shop operators earn “tons from drinks sales.”
SMU published the results of its study in late December. Among other results, almost half of the Singaporeans who participated said they would be willing to pay for clean and hygienic public toilet facilities.
A Feb 3 (Monday) report in The Straits Times (ST) showed an evaluation of 2,600 toilets across different public venues, with those in coffee shops receiving the lowest score, 46.26 out of 100. This is how other public toilets fared: hawker centres 66.28, MRT stations 75.97, and shopping malls 77.01.
ST pointed out that despite penalties imposed for lapses in cleanliness, the SMU study shows that the overall situation has not improved. The score that restrooms at coffee shops received has been the same across all the years the study has been conducted: 2016, 2020, 2023, and 2024.
“It’s been nearly a decade since I launched this project in 2015, yet we still find ourselves dealing with dirty public toilets in coffee shops. As we mark the Year of Public Hygiene, how much longer must Singapore wait for meaningful improvements to public toilets—especially as we move toward becoming a super-aged society?” said SMU Principal Lecturer of Statistics Rosie Ching, who leads the study.
“Every citizen deserves access to a clean and dignified public toilet,” she added.
ST also quotes her as saying that the burden of responsibility of keeping toilets clean should be on an establishment’s operators.
Commenters on Reddit appeared to agree, with one writing, “It’s infuriating knowing that the operator earns tons from the drinks sale but not spending enough to at least clean the toilet properly.”
Others agreed, pointing out that drinks have indeed increased in price lately and arguing that at least some of the profit would be put to good use by ensuring coffee shop toilets would be kept clean.
Participants in the study claimed that they perceived that the cleanliness of public toilets in coffee shops had declined compared to the previous year. Also, the link between the proximity of cooking facilities and toilet cleanliness in hawker centres and coffee shops has been particularly troubling. With restrooms closer to cooking areas being observed as dirtier, this has raised concerns about the hygiene standards in these settings. /TISG
Read also: Nearly half of Singaporeans are open to paying for clean public toilets, survey reveals