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The Seattle-based campus of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has been buzzing with activity for the past few days, as the “Reinvent The Toilet Fair” is officially underway.
The mission of this very unique event? To share and apply a new vision for the future of sanitation around the globe, and to make sure that the 2.5 billion global citizens who do NOT currently have easy access to affordable and safe sanitary systems can finally find the relief that they desperately need.
To date, approximately 4 in 10 people around the world do not have access to clean toilet solutions. Such poor sanitation begets contaminated food, tainted water, and a host of health problems including diarrhea and fever. Over 1.5 million child deaths per year are attributed to disease resulting from poor or non-existent sanitation.
Over 200 inventors, investors, artists, university representatives, and humanitarians are sharing ideas and creating innovative new prototypes for a future without sanitation-related disease, and a future that shuns impractical and expensive toilets in favor of genuinely brilliant, efficient new public waste systems.
One of the new toilets on display is a prototype developed by Stanford University and the Climate Foundation that pyrolyzes human waste into usable, biological charcoal. Another model from the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology diverts urine to a de-centralized refining and processing center on-site, and a gravity-driven membrane diverts and recycles clean water for safe use.
Bill gates announced cash prizes for the winning designs. “Innovative solutions change people’s lives for the better,” he says. “If we apply creative thinking to everyday challenges, such as dealing with human waste, we can fix some of the world’s toughest problems.”
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has committed $370 million to the Water, Sanitation & Hygiene (WSH) initiative, as well, in a concerted effort to devise proactive and creative solutions to this important global issue. You can read more about the Fair here.
Trade Winds Imports has a collection of modern, water-saving and eco-friendly toilets available for YOUR home sanitation solutions. Including features such as intelligent water delivery and diversion systems, you won’t find a more ecologically friendly toilet anywhere else… until the guys at the “Reinvent the Toilet Fair” put theirs out on the market!
Mike is the acting Digital Content Manager at Trade Winds Imports. He has been writing about home improvement, remodeling, and design for over 9 years and has been featured in such publications as theSpruce, ApartmentTherapy, Freshome, Huffington Post, and Forbes. When he’s not busy writing, developing websites, or working on his own house, he’s spending time outside with his wife, 2 year old daughter, and newborn son. If you have any questions or comments regarding the content on this site, please email Mike!