A flushing toilet, hooked up to a fresh water supply and a stable sewage line, is something
many people in the modern world take for granted.
According to the World Health Organization, approximately 2.3 billion people don't have
access to the basic sanitation afforded by modern plumbing.
But all those people still turn food into waste, and that waste still has to go somewhere.
Unfortunately, without plumbing, it ends up going pretty much everywhere you don't want
it to go, including into soil or into bodies of water, sometimes causing the rapid spread
of nasty and potentially fatal diseases.
"Some of the poorest, their toilet may look like this, a pit latrine."
This problem weighs on the minds of plenty of people, including some of the crusading
heads of charitable foundations and some of the world's most inventive scientists, who
have been trying to solve the problem of poop and make widespread sanitation possible.
In the latter category, for example, there's Bill Gates.
The Microsoft founder and his wife spend most of their time these days funding and facilitating
projects via the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Since 2011, the foundation says it's invested $200 million and pledged another $200 million
to make the developing world a little less, well, crappy.
On November 6, 2018, Bill Gates spoke at the Reinvented Toilet Expo in Beijing, China,
a place where inventors and organizations showed off cutting-edge, bacteria-killing,
literally life-saving bathroom technology.
"I wanna talk to you today about toilets."
Gates really wanted to drive home his message about how dangerous a problem poor sanitation
can be, and so during his speech, he held up a jar of human feces to demonstrate how
many toxic bacteria are present in even a small amount of human waste.
"Meet Poop."
"It's showtime!"
And that stuff doesn't just contain bacteria, but also:
"100,000 parasitic worm eggs, which you've got a little animation, to make you think
even more about that."
But the real stars of the Reinvented Toilet Expo were the 20 toilets of the future on
display.
And these designs really are something special, as they specifically don't need a connection
to water or sewage lines.
In other words, they can be used anywhere and everywhere, especially in communities
that don't have plumbing infrastructure in place.
Gates is a fan, placing this new category of johns among, quote "the most significant
advances in sanitation in nearly 200 years."
One of the most notable loos at the Reinvented Toilet Expo: the suitably scientifically named
Nano Membrane Toilet.
Here's how it works.
After a person does their business, they close the lid.
That sets a series of gears into motion, which "flush" waste away into a holding tank at
the bottom of the toilet, but without needing any water or electricity.
As the mechanism rids the toilet of waste, a thin blade scrapes the bowl clean.
A spiral device elevates only the solid parts of the waste out of the holding tank, cutting
it into small pellets and then feeding it into a tiny combustion chamber.
That's where the poop gets burned, and all the bacteria and eggs and whatever other nasties
it holds die a fiery death.
The user has to clean out the ashtray once a week.
But what happens to your No. 1?
(this entire scene is better than Goldmember)
The liquid waste passes into a channel full of membrane bundles that treat and sanitize
before sending it into a holding area at the front of the toilet.
It can be used for watering crops, or maybe for bathing livestock, even though it's not
drinkable.
"Don't do that."
The Nano Membrane is currently being tested in Ghana, where organizers aim to get people
used to it in public restrooms.
Then, over time, they hope the manufacturing costs will drop enough to allow for widespread
household use.
Goodbye disease, and goodbye dingleberries.
"She's a dingleberry.
Yeah!"