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Gates Foundation Makes Progress On Reinvented Toilets
Julie188 writes "Last summer the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation pledged to spend millions to reinvent the toilet. That investment has born fruit with teams from around the world coming up with many different ways to turn human waste into energy."
Some of these things seem rather complicated and use materials that aren't easy to obtain.
To provide greater benefit the machine should be able to be manufactured without specialized tools and be able to be built with universally available, preferably recyclable or re-purposed materials. If people can make a living out of making and servicing these toilets then the sanitary and economic (from the created industry) benefit will spread quickly and independently without requiring the oversight of a foreign NGO.
Anyone who thinks this is a silly idea needs to spend two weeks in a city without modern plumbing.
Long time linux lover here. Long time hater of MS policy and business practice. However, this man, who was once the richest man in the world has in the latest 15 years of his life great things for humanity. Things that actually make a different for people. I don't care how much you hate windows or Gates as the former president of that company, but surely you can't be against him spending so much of his fortune (and sure, he has enough money to have a comfortable life even with doing this) to make lifes better... Give the guy a break on this part. He has spend a fortune on his foundation and did so with many great projects that actually got shit done. (no phun intended)