There are 2.6 billion people in the world who have no access to a decent toilet. An interdisciplinary team of Swiss aquatic researchers and designers from Austria won with their invention as part of the 'Re-invent the Toilet' competition, sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation a special recognition award. The new toilet model will provide a sanitary solution that ensures human dignity and hygiene, while also being environment-friendly and economically feasible. All for less than five cents per day and person.
A total of 22 universities and research facilities submitted proposals to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2011 for the 'Re-Invent the Toilet Challenge' (RTTC). Goal of the competition: invent the toilet of the future! Prerequisites: the new toilet should need no sewer and no outside energy source, should be part of a recycling and treatment system for wastes and should cost no more than five cents per day per person. By the end of 2011, eight teams were still in the running, among them the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston and the California Institute of Technology. They all presented their projects August 14 in Seattle (USA).
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