ByCraig Kojima, Star-Bulletin
Jeannette Grace of Hawaiian Luas shows off the company's
deluxe model, complete with plants, carpeting, toilet cover,
wastebasket and sink.
"That was my mom's idea," said George Grace III, who runs Paradise Lua with his wife Jeanette.
The company rents portable toilets for about $100 a month, including weekly servicing. For a little more, you can have lights, curtains, potted plants, seat covers and other homey comforts.
Party rentals? Service can include a tuxedoed "valet" to help you in or hold your coat.
Paradise Lua, which once carried a solar-powered model equipped with cellular phone and radio, does what it can to compete with larger companies. Among 13 portable toilet companies in Hawaii, it vies for lucrative military or commercial contracts with such firms as Chemi-Toi, VIP Sanitation, A's Party Rentals, Coastline Pumping Inc., and Pacific Container.
"It's an interesting business when you really get into it," said Jeanette. "It's really money-making because people always need it."
According to the 580-member Portable Sanitation Association International, more than 2,000 companies operate in the United States, grossing $500 million a year. Worldwide, an estimated 1.4 million porta-potties are in the field.
With its modest inventory of 100 portable toilets and one pump truck, Paradise is strictly a family operation. George shuttles equipment, Jeanette handles paperwork, and Leonard "Didi" Thompson, a longtime friend, drives the "honey wagon."
"He's been with my dad since day one," said George, whose father, George Grace Jr., claims to have hammered together the first portable toilet in Hawaii about 30 years ago.
"This is one thing he believed in and everybody thought he was crazy," said Grace. "He just fooled everybody."
The elder Grace, whose invention included a flushing device, founded a company called Hawaii Lua which dominated during the 1980s with 1,500 units statewide.
"That was back in the days when they had to scoop it out with a shovel," noted Jeanette.
Today, "it" is pumped into a truck and disposed of down a Department of Health-approved manhole.
Paradise favors fiberglass units - they cost about $1,300 each - over plastic models.
"We find they're cool, and they're easy to refurbish," said Jeanette. "It's like a surfboard - you can patch it up and make it look brand new."
While job sites, parties, conventions and special events are prime targets, residents without plumbing sometimes turn to portable toilets as well.
Among past clients, Paradise rented potties to squatters at Makua Beach before state officers evicted them last year.
"We charged them the same as everybody else," said Jeanette. "We had about eight units down there at one time. Everybody wanted their own toilet."