In an effort to develop “next-generation” toilets that will deliver sustainable sanitation to the 2.5 billion people worldwide, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation felicitated three universities under the Reinvent the Toilet Challenge – a two-day event held at the foundation’s headquarters in Seattle on August 14 and 15. Universities were awarded prizes for coming up with solutions to capture and process human waste and transform it into useful resources. The event saw the participation from 29 countries showcasing their prototypes.
The winners included California Institute of Technology, USA for designing a solar-powered toilet that generates hydrogen and electricity; Loughborough University, UK, for a toilet that produces biological charcoal, minerals and clean water; and University of Toronto, Canada, for a toilet that sanitizes faeces & urine and recovers resources and clean water. A special recognition was awarded to Eawag (Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology) and EOOS for their outstanding design of a toilet user-interface.