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Bill Gates Won't Put Up With Your Crap

By Rain Noe - September 4, 2012

in Sustainable Design

"Politicians and leaders worldwide don't like to be associated with toilets," a UN official told The Economist, "even state-of-the-art toilets. This sanitation stigma distorts international and national development agendas." Thankfully Bill Gates has got enough FU money to do whatever he wants, and he realizes that one of the things the world needs is a better toilet, as unsexy as it sounds.

A staggering 40% of Earth's population do not have access to basic sanitation, and 1.5 million children are dying each year as a direct result. The Gates Foundation's Reinventing the Toilet Challenge recognizes that the solution is not a fancier Toto, but something that:

- Addresses the failures of the 18th-century toilet, which is not meeting the current needs of 2.5 billion people who lack access to sanitation
- Is hygienic and sustainable for the world's poorest populations
- Has an operational cost of $0.05 per user, per day
- Does not discharge pollutants, but instead generates energy and recovers salt, water and other nutrients
- Is designed for use in a single family home
- Does not rely on water to flush waste or a septic system to process and store waste
- Is the basis for a sanitation business that can be easily adopted by local entrepreneurs living in poor urban settings

Last year CalTech researcher Michael Hoffman was one of eight parties to win a $400,000 grant to build a prototype of his solar-powered toilet, and earlier this month, Gates crowned him the winner of the challenge (garnering him an extra 100 large). Hoffman's design is brilliant: A solar panel powers an electrochemical reactor of his own design. That reactor pulls the salt out of urine and produces chlorine, which is subsequently used to flush and disinfect the toilet. But the reactor also extracts hydrogen gas from the waste, and that gas can then be stored in fuel cells to power the toilet when the sun don't shine. Anything left over can be used as fertilizer.

Tellingly, and somewhat depressingly, Hoffman's design isn't new: He first proposed it to NASA in the early '90s for use on the ISS, and they passed. But thanks to the Gates Foundation, chances are higher that the impoverished in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia will get to one day use a toilet designed for astronauts.

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jason

12 years ago

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im all for this, glad to see a real innovation in something that hasn't changed essentially in decades. glad to see bill is giving back in the right way.
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vincent amsterdam

12 years ago

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I agree with Dutchy.
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Stephanie White

12 years ago

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Interesting - I knew there had to be more to this toliet than meets the eye - after all we know what a kind caring, compassionate, humanity loving piece of crap Bill Gates is :) and recovers salt, water and other nutrients
Where exactly is this recovered salt, water and other nutrients going to? You can be sure that this isn't about a toliet - he has evil intentions for it.
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Dutchy

12 years ago

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Let's see your design Adam. Aye.

Easy to be a critic. It's this kind of prototype and project that can lead to a simple elegant solution. You're kind of thinking would have us all on horseback. Criticise Windows all you will, but at least someone's trying to tackle the problems that you or I have the privilege to experience daily.
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Will

12 years ago

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I think it is about a bit more than simple aesthetics and user functionality. It is ,I guess, a prototype at this stage. But it works! Also it for-fills a real and massive need. Now designers can think about how to produce it in an economical way taking into consideration the issues you raise.
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Adam

12 years ago

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If there's anyone who knows about crapware...

That thing looks like the Windows of toilets: overly complex, requires constant user attention, no consideration for visual design or clarity, and lots of nooks, crannies and vulnerabilities that will propogate viruses.

A toilet that produces chlorine and hydrogen gases. What could possibly go wrong?
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