Last year the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation gave $3 million in grants to eight engineers to build a new type of toilet that functions without electricity or plumbing. More than 2.6 billion people across the globe lack access to clean toilets; this problem is so severe that it kills 1.5 million children each year due to poor sanitation. The Gates foundation is hopefully funding one solution to this problem, hunting for a new self-powered toilet.
Prototypes have been developed and will be inspected and evaluated shortly to determine if they are liable for mass production. How are they going to test them you ask?
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has ordered up 50 pounds of the “fake poo”, made of soybean paste, that will be used to test out high-tech toilets. Yes that’s right, “fake poo”.
The prototypes will be inspected and evaluated using the fake poop, and finalists will get more funding from the foundation. One of the contending commodes is solar-powered. Another converts waste into electricity using microwave technology, and one dries and burns faeces, transforming it into fertilizer. “It’s like a toilet that you’d find in the spaceship,” said a chemical engineer. “The faecal matter itself powers the toilet.”
Hopefully these new toilets will provide a solution to the on-going demand for sanitation to be provided where it is needed the most.
At Tardis our toilets may not be high-tech but if you need portable toilet hire for your event on construction site we will be able to provide you with the right sanitation solution!