There is a scheme where a private business can open their bathroom to the public, put a sign in the window saying "Our toilets are open to all", and get paid a bit by government to contribute to maintanance.

Seems like a good deal all round, considering many businesses need to have toilets for staff and customers already. The sign makes them look like good citizens, the additional maintenance is probably very small, and some of the people who come in to use the toilet will buy something, so it acts like advertising too.

I don't know why everywhere doesn't do it.

They don’t do it for the usual reasons: people with terrible and unhygienic habits, vandalism, drug consumption, smelly homeless, etc etc. I remember public toilets in the ‘80s, when heroin and smoking were more of a thing: everything was half-burnt, constantly. It’s the usual tragedy of the commons, or “why we can’t have nice things”.

> I don't know why everywhere doesn't do it.

The cost of dealing with the kinds of messes that happen in public toilets is exorbitant.

If you want more and more people to checkout of consumerism, removing public restrooms is a great start. It doesn't directly effect me so much (I'm apparently part camel) but indirectly, some loved ones I've traveled with need to use the restroom frequently and as the logistics person usually having to find solutions for everyone, I can tell you it drives me insane how difficult it is to find restrooms sometimes. There are areas I flat I refuse to go with others just because I'm not going to spend half my day running around in search for a restroom, nor do I want to feel inclined to buy a cup of coffee or whatever every single time someone needs to urinate. If I'm going to one specific place and I know there's restrooms that's fine but we tend to roam around. That's good for your business. The less inclined I am to roam, the less likely you'll ever see any money from me.

I'd rather just say "hey, let's do a family and friends get together and screw going out anywhere... come to my house, all the restrooms you can use here and no taxes or other non-sense!" There's probably $500-1k+ of revenue that local businesses didn't get that evening, but hey, it's better for my friends and family, we can save and invest that and be more comfortable.

For governments it doesn't matter, they can just shift taxes to where it needs to be. For businesses, it can seriously hurt your bottom line. I can't imagine operating a restroom is so costly to offset the lost customers that it's worth cutting off so many potential patrons, but maybe I'm wrong or maybe people will continue throwing their money in areas that aren't consumer friendly. It won't be me though. Also I'm not that old, the more elderly who tend to have more disposable income from wealth accumulation are also people who often have less ability to wait to use restrooms. They seem like another market to consider.

Mostly governments resolve it without needing to subsidise toilet use by requiring licensed premises or anywhere serving food and drink to have toilets

People throw all kinds of garbage into toilets and fixing them becomes a weekly chore.

Anyway, if people can start a successful business around overpriced coffee, then I'm curious if it's possible to start a profitable chain of public restrooms.

Toilet paper theft is concern too

I remember visiting newly fitted library in Pimlico,London. There was a huge sign on the toilet door saying you need to ask for toilet paper at the admin desk. So I go to the desk and ask for it, obviously curious to know why such policy exist to start with. They did tell they couldn't keep up with the thefts of toilet paper and couldn't buy it fast enough. This is one of the reasons a lot of nice and useful things can't existing for public, because a few idiots ruin it all for others.

Why is toilet paper need to be stole? Maybe if cizitens had basic needs met they would not need to steal TP?

I almost 100% sure it's not those in the greatest need who keep stealing it. It's just a category of people,who treat anything that isn't theirs as crap. It's the same people who steal all the towels,soap bars and what not from the hotel room, because,you know, they paid a lot for it. Or like in my own town,where the shoplifters are often teachers and medics- hardly the first category that come to your mind.

I wonder if there is some way we could make it open for the public minus the couple idiots who run it for the rest of us.

I don't really want to make it like Chinas social credit score, more like you do these bad things and we take your good person card.