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."

Comments

Upgraded toilets

[Anonymous Coward]

... now come with a Start button. Blue loo of death, anyone?

MS Windows: Human energy into waste.

[Anonymous Coward]

Has to be said.

Re:MS Windows: Human energy into waste.

[Myria]

the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation pledged to spend millions to reinvent the toilet. That investment has born fruit

I'm not sure I want to know what kind of fruit a toilet has to bear.

I don't want to attack Bill Gates.

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't want to say anything bad about Bill, but this sounds like a pretty shitty idea.

Re:I don't want to attack Bill Gates.

[Intelligenta]

To be honest, the amount of good Bill Gates has done for the world is quite remarkable. Since 2007 he has given away $28 billion, saving 6 million lives. That's $2 billion more than US budget for foreign aid. Say what you want about Gates or Microsoft, but he really has helped the world with the money he made.

Re:I don't want to attack Bill Gates.

[SaidinUnleashed]

You mean, other than Windows Me?

Re:I don't want to attack Bill Gates.

[Volguus Zildrohar]

You mean, other than Windows Me?

..plus Vista

Come on guys, don't mock the guy just because his earlier public toilet initiatives were less effective.

KISS Principle

[EnempE]

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.

Crucial

[BoydWaters]

Anyone who thinks this is a silly idea needs to spend two weeks in a city without modern plumbing.

Must be missing something...

[GumphMaster]

Why reinvent the toilet when we already have perfectly functional, no-energy (or very low energy) composting toilet and urine diversion options? What is it about these options that does not meet the criteria?

Re:Must be missing something...

[Anonymous Coward]

Why reinvent the toilet when we already have perfectly functional, no-energy (or very low energy) composting toilet and urine diversion options? What is it about these options that does not meet the criteria?

Somebody influential won't make a profit.

Re:Must be missing something...

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean somebody effluential won't make a profit

The hate

[santax]

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)

Re:The hate

[billcopc]

If I'm reading you correctly, you'd rather see him widen the wealth gap between the U.S. hyper-rich and the 3rd world ? The funny thing about wealth gaps is they tend to trigger acts of extreme violence to rebalance the equation. It is FAR more beneficial to humankind, to help the 3rd world deal with some of their most basic problems. Who's to say, maybe in 30 years from now, an African that was given access to education, sanitation and employment might discover a (realistic) cure for AIDS.

I'd go as far as saying that there is not much hope left for the U.S., because its control structures are far beyond repair, its human capital bottlenecked by the very pursuit of wealth. Throwing more money into a broken hyperpower only makes the rich richer. Throwing money into a 3rd world nation has the potential to bring sweeping changes.

Ultimately, it's about inching toward a unified world view. To think or act otherwise is notihng more than racism and elitism.

Does It Clean Your Asshole?

[Greyfox]

I've been pondering this recently. Here in the USA we tend to feel pretty holier-than-though, but for the most part we have pretty dirty assholes. I mean, poo touched that and we just wipe it off with some paper. If poo touched your hand, would you be content to wipe it off with paper? So why do we tolerate it with our assholes?

I'd love to see some demographics on countries sorted by asshole cleanliness. I'm guessing that just like education and health care, the USA would be solidly in the middle of the pack. I suspect that Japan probably would have the most-clean assholes in the world, just based on their high end toilet technology. I'm not sure I want to speculate on the dirty end of the scale so as not to risk diplomatic incident.

Re:Does It Clean Your Asshole?

[donscarletti]

I recommend the arse cleaning hoses found in Malaysia. They don't have the size or expense of a seperate bidet and they're not resident in the unhygenic toilet pot like Japanese integrated bidets. You just lift it off its hook on the wall, point the spray nozzle at your butthole, twist the tap and bam, no more shit on your o-ring. But either way, the European bidet has existed for a century now, there's always been that option at home, the Malaysian hose is the only option small, cheap and simple enough for institutional toilets.

Re:Does It Clean Your Asshole?

[ChinggisK]

Bah, you think the RIAA is bad, just you wait until Big Toilet Paper has its business model threatened by modern technology...

Re:Does It Clean Your Asshole?

[nedlohs]

I don't touch my food with my asshole.

Nor do I touch door handles and other things that other people will touch with my asshole.

Nor do I "shake assholes" with people.

This is highly overrated

[Anonymous Coward]

Look, we can separate this into 2 different camps: developed vs. undeveloped.
In the developed world, we have plumbing throughout, so the flush sends it to a central area. Now, how useful is that? 2 words: Joules Biotech. They are using genetically modified cyanobacteria, to kick out ethanol and diesel fuel. So, why is this special? Because this uses our sewage as feedstock. IOW, it turns crap into fuel. OTOH, the ideas being pushed here, require loads of energy to try and get rid of crap.

Then you have the undeveloped world. Basically, we are talking, no plumbing. So, what matters most to them? Soap and a water bowl. Yes. For the vast majority of the world, they use their left hand to wipe their ass(which is why you do not use your left hand in nearly all parts of the world). We could help the undeveloped world by simply getting them resources such as soap to kill the bacteria that are on their hands, esp. the left one. For those of you that think that this is funny, keep in mind that the single highest killer of babies in 3rd world nations is diarrhea. Much of that is from the parents or siblings having dirty hands.

Tree Bog

[pfafrich]

Best and simpest idea for a toilet I've seen is the tree bog. Its a raised platform over an enclosure space fenced off with chicken wire. Around the bog you plant willow or other greedy trees which rapidly consume the nutrients, effectively turning the poo into biomass. Aerobic decomposition has advantages over anaerobic decomposition and there is no smell if you use a layer of sawdust. The whole thing requires no maintenance as the poo decomposes very quickly. Not good for urban situations but ideal in rural environments.

Re:Salt Water?

[Rie Beam]

I did find this little gem.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_supply_in_Hong_Kong#Seawater_flushing

"In 1960 legislation was introduced to promote seawater flushing on a larger scale, followed by substantial investments in a separate network although the system was unpopular due to the need to build a separate plumbing network in each house. Seawater initially was sold, but from 1972 on it was provided for free and the costs of the system were recovered through the drinking water tariff. In 1991, about 65% of Hong Kong's households used seawater for flushing. By 1999, this percentage had increased to 79%"

Make the plumbing out of sunlight and sand.

[An dochasac]

Markus Kayser's solar sintering 3D printer shows what is possible when you use ingenuity, technology and two abundant desert resources, sunlight and sand. Mr. Kayser says he is already working with Kohler on the possibility of using solar powered, sand fed replicators like his to make sanitation products such as toilets and plumbing.

What an Unfortunate Choice of Metaphor

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

The article says Gate's toilet efforts have "born fruit".

Yeuagh!

Were these fruit "Dingleberries"?