We Are One World

kaitlinlpettit
Dec 8
2 min read

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On a trip years before Toilet Equity existed, our founder Paul Padyk found himself standing on a wooden platform over a creek in a high Himalayan valley. There were no trees to hide behind, only the river flowing below, and the uneasy relief of needing a bathroom and not having one. The smell, the exposure, the sound of water carrying everything away: it was a small, sharp lesson in vulnerability.

A few weeks later, in a mountain city after a festival, Paul and his son passed open piles of human waste against a building. His son’s face scrunched and he shouted what any ten-year-old would shout: “GROSSSSSSS!” That child’s honest reaction stuck with Paul, not just because it was funny, but because it revealed something serious: when basic needs go unmet, the consequences ripple outward, and everyone feels them.

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Those scenes become the throughline for the work we do. They show why our four pillars are really one connected story.

Human Dignity: The First Ripple

The pause someone takes the first time they step into a clean, private TE toilet—breathing easy, closing the latch—matters. Dignity isn’t an optional upgrade. When one neighbor can meet a basic need without shame, our public spaces and shared sense of belonging improve for all of us.

Public & Environmental Health: We All Live Downstream

The festival piles melting into rain and the creek carrying waste make a simple point: we all live downstream. Pathogens don’t stay put. Keeping waste out of alleys, parks, and waterways is the most direct harm reduction we can do. Every accessible, dignified toilet is a public-health win for the whole neighborhood.

Gender Equity: Safety Starts with a Bathroom

Bathroom access is safety. The everyday shame or risk of not having a private place to go—whether for a trans person facing harassment, a student needing period supplies, or someone with a medical condition—ripples across our social fabric. When bathrooms are safe and affirming, equity rises for everyone.

Resource Recycling: Transforming Waste into Community

Back at his mountain cabin, Paul saw another lesson: a compost toilet where sawdust turns waste into soil over time. It’s literal alchemy: poop becomes compost, and compost becomes life. That circle is a reminder that when systems are designed with care, even waste becomes a resource that benefits the whole community.

Follow the ripples

The point isn’t poetic: it’s practical. When we lift dignity, protect public health, affirm equity, and close the loop on resources, we build a stronger, cleaner community for everyone.

We rise and fall together.

We all live downstream.

When we choose compassion and practical systems—one toilet, one pile of sawdust, one respectful policy at a time—we’re building a world where belonging is for everybody.