Samsung has announced that it has completed development on a prototype toilet with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as part of the latter’s Reinvent the Toilet Challenge. This is not Bill Gates’ first involvement with a toilet project. He purchased a system that turns garbage to water and power seven years ago.
The prototype is intended for home use and kills microorganisms in human waste through heat treatment and bioprocessing. These methods “make the effluent and solids released safe for the environment.” Because water scarcity is a problem in some areas, the toilet purifies the water so that it can be reused.
While most people in industrialized countries do not give much thought to the toilet, around 3.6 billion people do not have access to these facilities. Every year, around 500,000 children under the age of five die as a result of diarrheal infections caused by a lack of clean water and hygiene.
Samsung intends to grant royalty-free licenses of patents connected to this initiative to underdeveloped countries in order to help countries get this product into the homes of more people. This information exchange will take happening during the commercialization stage. Once the design has been improved, Samsung and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will seek industry partners to assist in bringing the product to market.
