Perhaps no one takes all this more seriously than Jack Sim, a Singapore businessman who in 2001 founded the World Toilet Organization.
Its World Toilet Summit has met annually in many cities since then - in Moscow, a visit to the space station toilet was a highlight - and in early November it made its U.S. debut by teaming up with a plumbing convention in Philadelphia.
Mostly, the summit was about public toilets, which are ripe with issues.
Are they safe enough, accessible enough, green enough, clean enough? Are there enough to begin with?
The universal answers: No, no, no, no, and definitely not!
Furthermore, public facilities lack privacy. Europeans and Asians are appalled at how high most American stall doors are, leaving a person's legs and possibly even underwear on display.
There is little gender equality. Women still have to wait in long lines while the men sail through, although a bill to address the imbalance in federal buildings has been introduced in Congress. Although it's unlikely to move, "this is the highest level potty parity has gotten to," gushed Kathryn H. Anthony, a University of Illinois architecture professor. "It's historic."
When the summit organizers picked Philadelphia for their first U.S. conference, they were coming to an area rich in toiletry.
Benjamin Franklin was an early adopter of the flush toilet, and while his no longer exists, visitors to Franklin Court can still see his privy.
Fast-forward to 2006. The city became infamous for the plumbers union battle over installing waterless urinals in the Comcast Center.
Philadelphia also may well be the first large city in the United States to have public composting toilets. Two are in Fairmount Park along the Wissahickon, and one was installed weeks ago along the Schuylkill at Walnut Street.
