Since 2011, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has sponsored the Reinvent the Toilet Challenge, providing grants and investment to researchers around the world. Last week, the Foundation along with global innovators, development banks, corporate partners, sanitation utilities and governments hosted the first Reinvented Toilet Expo in Beijing.
The Reinvent the Toilet Challenge challenges innovators to create a toilet that:
- Removes germs from human waste and recovers valuable resources such as energy, clean water, and nutrients.
- Operates “off the grid” without connections to water, sewer, or electrical lines.
- Costs less than US$.05 cents per user per day.
- Promotes sustainable and financially profitable services and businesses that operate in poor, urban settings.
- Is a truly aspirational next-generation product that everyone will want to use—in developed as well as developing nations.
To follow up on the Expo, NPR’s Goats and Soda writer Katrina Yu wrote an article titled “Why Did Bill Gates Give a Talk with a Jar of Human Poop by His Side?” Are you curious now? Join in on the Challenge. Everyone deserves safe and accessible sanitation. A huge shout out to The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for challenging us to finding a better solution to this simple yet complex issue.
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