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More portable sanitation flush real estate biz

NJBIZ - 8/3/2018

Just ask Gary Weiner, president of Keasbey-based portable sanitation company Mr. John.

“As more and more property is developed or redeveloped with an ever-increasing population, the demand for portable sanitation increases with it,” Weiner said. “The insatiable demand for rebuilding aging infrastructure such as bridges, tunnels, utilities, roadways and sewer systems adds to the demand for portable sanitation.”

He added that the demand for portable sanitation equipment and service has been growing steadily since the early 1960s. As construction and development have increased over the years and across the state, so has the need for adequate portable sanitation on construction sites.”

The company currently has 3,700 active sites in New Jersey, with construction-site sales seeing a 21 percent increase between January and May, compared with the same span a year earlier. Weiner said that indicates a healthy construction industry in the state.

“When there is clean and adequate portable sanitation on site, productivity increases,” Weiner said. “The main reason productivity increases is because workers can remain on site if they have to use the bathroom and not have leave the site and travel to the closest restaurant or gas station. Productivity can be further increased by placing the equipment where the work is. As development progresses, the equipment moves with it.”

The industry can supply toilets designed to move around with cranes and freight elevators, enabling a workforce to have access to temporary sanitation during high-rise construction or below-grade construction such as subway and water tunnels and other subsurface infrastructure.“[Portable sanitation is] the first thing on and the first thing off a job site. It’s one of the biggest things workers call for on a site. They wouldn’t show up for work if it wasn’t here.” Suzanne Meehan of A&E Construction“While the development scene all over the state is very robust at the moment, there are clearly a few trends that are dominating,” Weiner said. “Newark, Jersey City, Hoboken, Camden, New Brunswick, and transit towns and villages are very active with new development. People want to live in cities or in towns that have access to rail which can get them to the cities pretty sure this is a millennial trend.”

A & E Construction of Upper Darby, Pa., has seven active sites in New Jersey.

“[Portable sanitation is] the first thing on and the first thing off a job site,” A&E’s Suzanne Meehan said. “It’s one of the biggest things workers call for on a site. They wouldn’t show up for work if it wasn’t here.”

Steve Lapitzki of Shore Home Builders has been a Mr. John customer for more than a decade and currently has two active sites in Atlantic Highlands.

“It keeps the guys on the site,” Lapitzki said. “Obviously it’s a necessity and it keeps the guys from going into the new house to use the bathroom.”

The portable sanitation industry has come a long way, said Weiner, with amenities such as air conditioning, fresh running water and Corian countertops almost standard.

“Early portable toilets were constructed out of five sheets of plywood and a steel drum on its side as the holding tank,” Weiner said. “With progress, fiberglass was introduced and then HDPE high density polypropylene or plastic. The plastic innovation created lightweight, resilient and easy-to-clean portable toilets that enabled the industry to scale up with demand.”

Additional innovations include installing temporary fresh water holding tanks and waste holding tanks in field office trailers to provide temporary field office workers with freshwater flushing toilets where no sewer and water existed.

“This type of innovation proved invaluable for large-scale development, where construction managers, engineers and sales teams could work alongside the construction workers as the project progressed,” Weiner said. Copyright 2018 BridgeTower Media. All Rights Reserved.

CREDIT: Elana Knopp