World Toilet Day: JCDecaux completes the roll-out of the World’s largest network of self-cleaning public toilets in Paris

JCDecaux SE (Euronext Paris: DEC), the number one outdoor advertising company worldwide, announces the full completion of the roll-out of the new generation of self-cleaning public toilets for the City of Paris, the world’s largest network of self-cleaning public toilets, following 18 months of mobilisation by JCDecaux teams.

In 2022, JCDecaux – a global-leading player, the inventor of the self-cleaning public toilet was commissioned by the City of Paris to replace and modernise its facilities. The roll-out began in March 2024 after a 2-year manufacturing process to gradually replace the previous models. Together with its partners Enedis and Eau de Paris, JCDecaux has replaced around 7 toilets per week across the capital’s neighbourhoods, ensuring a consistently high level of service in every arrondissement.

A strong mobilisation of the teams to deliver technological and industrial excellence for the City of Paris, Parisians and visitors alike.

JCDecaux’s site teams worked around the clock, six days a week, to replace 417 toilets in just 18 months (with a forecast of 18 new sites planned to reach a total of 435 toilets) and successfully met numerous challenges, including:

• A rapid deployment of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games sites ahead of the opening ceremony;
• Maintaining a 90% availability rate across the entire network during the building works;
• Reusing 100% of existing locations, infrastructure and networks, each site having been inspected during the product design phase;
• An innovative method developed with Enedis for reconnecting live power networks, reducing on-site intervention times and maintaining a high level of service continuity throughout the works.

Throughout the project, JCDecaux and its partners have prioritised Parisians and visitors. The removal and installation of the toilets were carried out at night to avoid disrupting traffic or pedestrian flow, while service continuity was ensured with a service rate above 98% and more than 3,000 maintenance interventions per week.

Higher-capacity toilets meeting growing public use.

Enhancing access to sanitation in public spaces for everyone, usage of these new self-cleaning public toilets, which offer double the capacity and four times the service availability of the previous models, has increased significantly, with nearly 2.5 million uses per month across the network:

• 1 million for the cabin (average of 85 uses per toilet per day)
• 1.5 million for the urinal (average of 115 uses per toilet per day)
   

While 17.7 million uses were recorded across 2024, 18 million were registered between January and September 2025 alone.

JCDecaux: world leader in self-cleaning public toilets.

Public toilets, due to their specific requirements, are not street furniture like any other. Their operation demands in-depth understanding of user behaviour combined with expertise in design and operation. Drawing on this unrivalled expertise, JCDecaux operates the two largest self-cleaning public toilet contracts in the world — Paris and Berlin, with 435 and 278 units respectively. The Group operates more than 2,500 self-cleaning public toilets in 28 countries, welcoming over 30 million users each year. These facilities form an integral part of the urban landscape worldwide. From Paris to Berlin, via Marseille, San Francisco, Stockholm, Abidjan or Lagos, JCDecaux provides street furniture and associated services that evolve with their environment and with changing needs.

In the United States, our mission is to deliver first-class sanitation services that make urban spaces friendlier, safer, and accessible to everyone. For nearly 30 years, we have supported the City of San Francisco with our self-cleaning public toilets that clean and sanitise after every use, ensuring reliability and safety for residents and visitors. 
Our dedicated local team manages all ongoing maintenance and operations, backed by an innovative financing model where advertising revenue from kiosks covers the installation and maintenance, keeping the toilets in a state of good repair. This means uninterrupted service at no cost to taxpayers, and a proven track record of long-term commitment to public well-being.

Other projects are underway across the country to further improve access to hygiene facilities in urban areas:

• Chicago: as part of a programme that until now did not include public toilets, JCDecaux will take part in a pilot project, installing a free of charge self-cleaning public toilet in early 2026;
• New York: JCDecaux has committed to doubling its number of self-cleaning public toilets to a total of 40 across the city, with seven already installed.

Jean-Charles Decaux, Co-CEO of JCDecaux, said: “When JCDecaux invented the self-cleaning toilet in 1980, this showed the vision and pioneering approach of the company and importantly started a revolution to open up access for everyone to hygiene facilities in urban areas. We are extremely proud to have successfully deployed the new generation of self-cleaning public toilets for the City of Paris — an outstanding industrial and operational achievement. I warmly thank all our teams and partners who were fully committed at every stage of this project. For more than 40 years, since the first two toilets were installed in the Beaubourg district, and with its unique expertise as designer and operator, JCDecaux has championed the provision of public hygiene and now manages the world’s leading network of self-cleaning public toilets. Our ongoing innovation is enabling cities across the world to meet the challenges of providing access to safe sanitation and hygiene – a fundamental human right that is highlighted on World Toilet Day 2025 on November 19th. Through its actions, JCDecaux, official partner of the United Nations Joint Sustainable Development Goals Fund, is proud to support Goal 6, which focuses on sanitation and clean water for all by 2030.”