Happy World Toilet Day!
Poop is one of my favourite topics of conversation, and the reason why today is such a special day. Happy World Toilet Day – lets celebrate one of our most important inventions.
Know your Toilet
Improved sanitation is the reason why most of our species no longer lives with brutal dieseases like cholera, dysentery and typhus — not to mention the bubonic plague. Sanitation itself dates back as far as the 1800 B.C.E. when the Minoans from the Island of Crete used underground clay pipes for sanitation and water supply. Almost 1500 years later, the Romans and Egyptians followed suit and introduced the concept of indoor pooping, with some incredibly designed toilets truly fit for a king!
Our modern flushing toilet was formally developed by Alexander Cummings in 1775. Contrary to popular belief, Sir Thomas Crapper did not invent the flush toilet. He was, however, a game changer in the industry with 9 patents to his name and serving the crown as their plumber. Legend has it that Queen Elizabeth I was too embarrassed to use the flush toilet since the noise would inform the palace of her bowel movements.
Over 200 years later, the world has made some astounding technological advances and yet the toilet remains relatively unchanged. A single flush of the toilet uses about 3.5 gallons of water. That puts tremendous strain on limited water resources (when billions of people are flushing toilets daily).
Innovation is Key
As we speak, our incredible team of engineers is hard at work developing a dry toilet system that produces agricultural inputs with a technically efficient structure. For the 2.5 billion that are still forced to defecate in the open, we must introduce toilets that are operable without electricity, running water or septic systems. Many organizations spend a lot of money on septic tanks and complicated systems that our engineers can't disagree with more. Check out more about these designs via the Reinvent the Toilet Fair.
Today, while you are sitting on your toilet doing your thing – please remember how truly fortunate we are, think about those who aren't, and for god's sake use febreze after you cut the cheese.