The self-contained community centers being brought to impoverished areas of the planet have everything - clean water, cell phone charging stations - and solar powered toilets.
With $1,777,000 in funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Karl Linden, a University of Colorado environmental engineering professor and his team, have invented the Sol-Char.
Using solar panels and fiber optic cables, the Sol-Char turns solid human waste into briquettes that can then be used as fertilizer. The safe to handle, environmentally friendly byproduct is called biochar.
Jack Sim, the head (if you'll pardon the pun) of the World Toilet Organization says, "A major part of the problem is that sanitation isn't a particularly glamorous cause."
He further points out that 2.5 billion, or roughly one-third of the world's population, lacks proper sanitary facilities, leaving them susceptible to a wide range of diseases.
Professor Linden states, "We need to think of sanitation as a business opportunity, and turn the toilet into a status symbol."
As the winner, out of sixteen competing teams, of the Gates Foundation's "Reinvent the Toilet Challenge," Linden's prototype tackled the problem of how to sanitize waste without massive treatment plants. Heat generated by solar collectors on the roofs of the toilets is transferred by the fiber optic cables into chambers beneath the commodes.
Speaking about the community center approach, Linden said, "I think it's hard to make sanitation sexy, but by making it a hub, it can be something more popular."
You can visit Sol-Char's Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/SolarBiochar
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