News hardware Bill Gates and Samsung will revolutionize our toilets!
Published on 08/26/2022 at 19:05
Toilets are a real problem in many countries. Bill Gates wants to revolutionize the sector, to help the poorest, but also to bring innovations for the whole world. A hygienic, off-grid washroom solution.
Samsung stand-alone toilets
If the title may seem laughable, it nevertheless reveals a reality. The toilets as we see them today do not correspond to the world of tomorrow (or even today for some countries). In 2011, Bill Gates launched a call for projects to develop new toilets. The “Reinvent the Toilet Challenge” initiative aims to create hygienic, off-the-grid, affordable and useful toilets for both developing and developed countries.
Samsung has unveiled in a
Press release
that the first prototype had just been completed. This is a project launched in collaboration with the Bill Gates Foundation in 2019. Today, Samsung’s research subsidiary is testing the prototype. The partnership is expected to continue even following the toilets are commercialized, according to Samsung’s statement.
pa During this commercialization phase, royalty-free licenses will be given r Samsung to developing countries in need of an emergency solution. This will give them the opportunity to build the toilet themselves, costing them less. The Korean group will also continue to follow up. We can thus read: “The two organizations will work together to identify industry partners willing to commercialize the technology, following making the design more efficient for mass production.”
What’s “revolutionary” regarding these Samsung toilets?
Already, its first advantage is that it can be used off the network. This means it does not need to be connected to a regular water supply. The toilet will then dry out and use a biotreatment to kill any potential pathogens. The resulting solid waste will therefore not be harmful to the environment. They will therefore be dehydrated, dried and burned to ashes.
The water will be treated once more and used for future use. Samsung is talking regarding a biological purification processor. No idea if this solution requires electricity or changing filters. This last solution would be the most restrictive.
Samsung’s toilets will be usable in the middle of the desert as well as in a house in the middle of nowhere in France. The goal is for it to be as versatile as possible. This reduces production costs by selling more products. The foundation has set a limit of five cents per use, for the project to be eligible for their project.
A key challenge for tomorrow
We rarely think of developing a new solution for toilets to help the most disadvantaged countries. Yet it is an issue as crucial as the proper supply of food and water.
The World Health Organization and UNICEF report that approximately 3.6 billion people worldwide end up using unsanitary sanitation solutions. The result is that half a million children under the age of five die each year, for lack of hygiene and drinking water. Knowing that river water is often not drinkable, precisely because of the human waste thrown into it.
The problem is therefore global and seeing Samsung develop such a project can only encourage other manufacturers to do the same. So yes, Samsung intends to revolutionize our toilets.
