There’s a quiet revolution going on in toilet technology. It really is an age where anything is possible.
Australian toilets use up to 12 litres in a single flush.
This is madness right?
There’s been a few improvements in water-efficiency in recent years but the fact remains – in one of the driest continents on earth, we still flush swimming pools of perfectly good drinking water down our toilets.
And some years, I can only water my garden on a Wednesday.
Toilets are old school. In fact, look around your house. Chances are your toilet is the most antiquated piece of technology you own. Is there anything older? Do you own a wind-up gramophone?
They took a while to get going in the West, but archaeologists have dug up a working toilet in China that’s 2400 years old.
And it looks pretty much the same as ours. There’s a stone bowl and running water – even an arm-rest.
But the fundamental essence of ‘toilet’ is the same, and it hasn’t changed in thousands of years: there’s a bowl, that fills with water, and pipes that take it away to the sewerage pipes, which take it even further away.
This is the essence of toilet.
And maybe this is a case of ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’. But if water is going to remain one of the big challenges in Australia, then surely there’s scope to get a little creative.
And I was reading about the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation the other day. They’re getting behind all sorts of fantastic causes. Ending hunger, eradicating disease, building super toilets.
Hey? Yep, turns out one of their missions is to build the toilets of the future. They’ve given 8 universities funding to help bring toilets into the 21st century.
The vision is breathtaking.
They’re dreaming of toilets that require no infrastructure – no pipes under the floor, no leach field under the lawn, no sewer systems under the street. The super toilets just powder and burn the faeces and flash-evaporate the urine, making everything sterile in the process.
And it’s a toilet that keeps on giving – packets of urea (for fertiliser), table salt (there’s a marketing challenge!), even enough power to charge your mobile phone.
And these toilets even create fresh-water for you.
If they succeed, the implications are staggering. Poor sanitation is still one of the primary causes of death and disease in the developing world.
Super-toilets could save millions of lives.
But even in the developed world, they reckon three quarters of our water bills comes from hauling away waste and running sewerage treatment plants.
It saves money. It saves water. There’s free salt. It’s win win win.
They’re also aiming for the super toilets to be able to process green-waste – food scraps and garden clippings etc.
All the while being totally self-contained and self-powered. Apparently there’s over a megajoule per day of energy in human faeces – enough to power the toilet, and your mobile phone – even the lights!
Pretty radical stuff right?
And how far away is this technology. 10 years, 20 years?
Well, no. Apparently you can build one today with off-the-shelf parts. The technology is already here.
The only challenge left is to achieve economies of scale. The Gates foundation has set a target of 5c a day – because that’s what they reckon the developing world can afford.
5c a day. Or just $18.25 a year. For a techno-toilet that would probably mean the end of water restrictions in Australia.
I’m going to get out the slip-n-slide and party like it’s 1972.
This is what excites me these days.
We get so focused on what one nut-job did in Lindt café, or what one politician said about this or that, that we lose sight of what powerful stuff is going on quietly behind the scenes.
There are people with vision, teaming up with people with resources (thanks Bill!), teaming up with people with amazing technology, and trying to tackle the great challenges of our time – challenges that have plagued humanity for thousands of years.
And now, suddenly, it looks like victory could be ours.
And the toilet is just one example. This wild technological age is enabling quiet, peaceful but incredibly powerful revolutions all over the place.
And I love this toilet example because it’s so mundane. We’re not talking about flying into space or harnessing free energy from the earth’s rotation. This is just about using technology and creative intelligence to build a better toilet.
But we have the technological and organisational means now to be able to leverage a single simple innovation into a global revolution.
Develop the prototype in California, email the plans to production centres around the world, and within a year or two you could have the whole world turned on to a brand new way of doing things.
And millions and millions of lives could be saved.
And this is just with a better toilet. What other revolutions are hidden in your back-yard?
This is an age for questioning what we know. Questioning the status quo – the way we’ve always done things.
Because really, now, anything is possible. Every individual has a network of creative and technical genius at their finger-tips. Technology has gone ballistic. The lags between conception and realisation get shorter every day.
And if you’ve got a great idea, there’s probably an engineer in Pakistan who’d love to make it happen. A marketing guy in London. A venture capitalist in Melbourne. An admin guru in the Philippines…
You can make it happen.
The world has no shortage of challenges.
But for every challenge, there is an abundance of answers.
polony says
“Chances are your toilet is the most antiquated piece of technology you own. Is there anything older?”
Your definition of technology is limited. I live in a BRICK building with bricks joined by CEMENT. My breakfast includes BREAD.
A lot of old technology is still very useful. I may not want to invest in it, depending on the competitive environment, but I have no problem if somebody else has a marginal business satisfying my needs.
Special Operations Executive says
You obviously missed the point. Technology was used to MAKE your brick building or loaf of bread. The house will stay put & do nothing else.
You will eat the bread & shit it out. WHERE will that go? Fair chance into the toilet. Then you may decide to flush the toilet. The toilet requires MOVING parts to make it work & get rid of your crap.
If you can’t see the difference, then what are you doing on this blog? But then marginal businesses satisfy your needs, so obviously obtaining wealth is not a goal for you. Why are you on a blog that’s purpose is to help create wealth?
Gezza says
I agree that polony might have missed the point a bit, but no need to be so harsh or demeaning. Good post Jon, thanks!
JR says
I thought the point was water and it being essential to life. NSW Planning Commission has just approved a Chinese coal mine on the last fertile basin left on east coast of Australia after decimating the hunter Valley and Qld Downs. You can’t eat coal. JR
Samantha Rennie says
Thanks for spreading the word on solution focus not problem focus. Much better way to start my day! There is so much of this going on people are inspirational.
Steve, Ashfield WA says
Another example- like roof top solar power (once battery technology develops) and internet service delivery, the rise of 3D printing solutions and other rapidly emerging technologies that will challenge the organisational structure of our cities and towns. The massive investments in centralised service provision so enamoured of our political masters and their media stooges will prove to be a massive mal-investment providing nothing but massive budget problems for financing public debt for future generations. We already see the result in the energy markets of over investment in network building based on projections of electricity demand ignoring changes in demand patterns due to energy saving and decentralised production based on adoption of on premise generation. The unfortunate consumers without rooftop solar or other means to mitigate their usage are paying- and will continue to pay-for this splurging on un-needed infrastructure
Jenni says
Fantastic. Totally admire the Gates for their Foundation’s work and philanthropy. How to inspire other super-rich people to do similar? How to get rid of politicians (in first as well as third world countries) who only support old technologies to line their pockets and their cronies pockets, instead of innovative technologies that help the common people? Why do so many narcissistic self-centered people get into power, instead of community-minded innovative people? That is where a real mind shift needs to take place to allow ideas like the toilet to flourish. BTW I love running my air-con guilt free as my solar panels power it!
ek says
Jon, you are sleeping my friend….. sorry to be so blunt…
We must wake up people and quick. It is so naive to think that Bill Gate and his foundation are doing good for humanity. It is far from it. He is part of the parasitic cabal and they do not want us on earth. Please read Georgia stone to see what they planned for humanity. His foundation is into vaccination, GMO etc. Please do some research on them and you will never like them at all.
ProVaxxerProGMO says
Please present your peer reviewed scientific evidence for the negative claims made about vaccines and GMO. As a trained biotechnologist and biochemist, I am more than happy to examine your evidence. I have but one ask in return, you read every piece of hard-science I send you during our knowledge exchange. I will ask questions just to check you have read and comprehended the factual scientific evidence presented.
Oh, and I have a child with autism. I know absolutely that vaccination is NOT the cause.
ek says
I presume you are an “expert” in this…. To start with please watch lectures given by Dr. Suzanne Humphries on vaccinations. Your tactic would not work here as I was a scientist in my previous life and published papers, etc. Do you really believe that peer reviewed articles always tell the truth and not biased? ( check smoking researches, EMR etc). Lets not be too naive about it.
Why do you think that US made illegal to even critise Monsanto???
By the way, Obama got Peace nobel price. Have you wondered about it. Everything seems upside down!!! Wake up…
Please do some research about Bill gates and you will get some truth about him, unless of course your preconceived ideas are set in concrete. If you know it all then there is nothing else learn.
ProVaxxerProGMO says
Help me understand your position more clearly to make sure I am on the same page with you? I understand the facts you present as follows;
1. Peer reviewed scientific articles sometimes are false.
2. Peer reviewed scientific articles are sometimes biased.
3. The US made it illegal to criticise Monsanto.
4. Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize.
5. Dr. Susan Humphries gave a series of lectures on the safety of vaccines where her findings showed some vaccines are not safe.
6. You were a scientist and published papers. (Please clarify if this was in the field of GMO/Biology/Genetics/Biotechnology or similar field of expertise.)
7. There is research available that provides factual evidence about Bill Gates.
8. I have a tactic and it will not work “here”. (Please clarify what the tactic is so we can add it to the fact list.)
9. The Georgia Guidestones are presented as a factual account on what Bill Gates and his “group” have planned for humanity.
By extrapolation of the above logic you present the following Hypothesis;
a) Humans should not be too naiive about scientific articles. It is noted that “naiive” has no known objecive measure and therefore must be a subjective opinion of the observer.
b) I have pre-conceived ideas that are set in concrete. i.e. They are subjective to the observer. It is noted that ideas, including my own, are a construct of the mind and ephemeral in nature. Again, there is no objective measure of the “concreteness” of an idea, except perhaps by submitting it to the scientific method for measurement and analysis with logic, then having it peer-reviewed.
c) All humans (most? some? few? Just Jon and I?) are not seeing the facts for what they really are.
d) Bill Gates is part of a group of people preying on all other humans that aren’t part of his group of trusted people. They are trying to remove us from the planet earth. It is not stated how this is being acheived, for what reason, how many people are involved, where it started, how long
In addition, the logic you present in 1-6 causes the following;
a) Dr. Susan Humphries research could be false and biased. (Logic rules 1 & 2)
b) Your research logic, and by extension, the Hypothesis derived could be false and biased.
c) There is research available about Bill Gates.
d) The Georgia Guidestones research could be false and biased.
Summary: Please do let me know if I am understanding you correctly.
P.S. – An interesting statement from a rational analysis by skeptoid regarding the Geogia Guidestones;
There’s no proof that the Guidestones are not evidence of a conspiracy, but they’re also exactly consistent with what we’d expect to find without such a conspiracy.
Of course, skeptoid may actually be part of the “cabal” of Bill Gates. In which case, his research may be false and biased.
And, by extension, I could also be one of Bill Gates’s “cabal” and therefore any research I present could be false and biased.
ek says
Please watch the following and tell me what you think for each of them.
http://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates?language=en
http://healthimpactnews.com/2014/dr-suzanne-humphries-on-vaccine-safety-they-dont-want-you-to-hear-the-other-side/
ash w says
Henry ford had a marginal business once so did Bill Gates but you all drive cars and guess what your actually reading this on your computer aren’t you. There has always been and will always be people who have the capacity to think outside the box and for that I am thankful or we would all be wearing animal skins and clubbing our dinner to death or maybe we would actually be extinct.
Theresia says
THERE IS ALREADY THE WATERLESS LOO in which the end product can be used to fertilize the garden. The urine is evaporated via the heat caused by the biological breakdown. This method uses NO WATER but uses ash or sawdust or even soil to cover each use. Only needs emptying once every three months or so. Kitchen scraps etc can also be thrown in – therefore no need for traipsing out to the compost heap each time. They are used in high rise apartment buildings in Switzerland, Canada US despite having freezing conditions. Check back to me for further information. P.S. I had plans go through my Council for a MUDBRICK house which included the waterless loo and recycling of grey water (from shower, bath and laundry)
Dangerous says
Haha Jon, you write a blog about some exciting new toilet technology and end up with heated discussion about everything from pro/anti vaccination/gmo to evil capitalists and government conspiracies!!!!
Personally, I don’t care if the (evil) Gates pays for the development of this technology – I will just be looking forward to never cleaning a stinking toilet again as surely it is the worst job ever.
Chris Harris says
Burn the faeces and flash evaporate the urine?? How much energy with that take? Every heard about the rather urgent issue of global climate change?