Gates Foundation: 'We Need To Reinvent The Toilet'

After praising the invention of the toilet...

"No innovation in the past 200 years has done more to save lives and improve health than the sanitation revolution triggered by invention of the toilet," Sylvia Mathews Burwell, president of the foundation's global development program, said in a statement.

... the complaints are then made that it doesn't help enough people because so many people don't have water with which to flush; also it requires a sanitation system to purify the waste.

But -- aren't those same people also suffering from a lack of water and sanitation? So isn't the real problem the lack of systems that can sanitize water and create potable water? So maybe instead of spending the millions trying to re-invent a device they admit works well, shouldn't they be spending their millions to develop water desalinization, waste sanitation and water purification systems?

The pioneer ethos of America was to plunder the land, dump the waste, and move on to virgin territory, leaving the waste behind. The fundamental shift we are seeing is from that old dumping model to a focus on recycling of water and solid waste. Flushing is no longer the end of the matter. At last there is some recognition that we do not, in fact, have all the technologies we need for doing this dirtiest of dirty jobs. It's great to see Mr. Gates, a multi-billionaire, willing to get his hands dirty to help the poor people.

A related problem is the manure lagoons which have accumulated at dairy and pig farms. In California alone, there are 889 dairies having more than 500 cows. The farmers would like to be able to (1) strip the stink, (2) dewater the sludge so it has the required solids content to be feed for an anaerobic digester, and (3) disinfect that extracted water so it can be used for crops, like alfalfa for cows. The digester produces biogas (60-70% methane) and converts toxic ammonia into fertilizing ammonium, so the processed solids have value. The biogas also has value, perhaps as renewable energy credits to meet California's ambitious 33% renewable energy target.