[ad_1]
1/2
Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong (left) shakes hands with Microsoft founder Bill Gates on August 16 in Seoul. The two discussed how to use and apply the technology of the new concept toilet.Photo courtesy of Samsung Electronics
SEOUL, August 29 (UPI) — Electronics giant Samsung and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have developed a concept toilet that manages human waste without relying on a sewage system.
The work began in 2019, when Samsung Electronics joined the Gates Foundation in an attempt to reinvent the toilet by applying the new technology to various prototypes.
Samsung announced Thursday that Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong met with Microsoft founder Bill Gates on Aug. 16 to discuss the finished product and exchange ideas on how to use it.
“Core technologies developed by Samsung include thermal and biological treatment technologies that kill pathogens in human excrement and make the sewage and solids released during the process safe for the environment,” Samsung said in a statement.
“The system enables full recovery of the treated water. Solid waste is dewatered, dried and burned to ash, while liquid waste is treated using a biological purification process,” it continued.
Seoul-based Samsung, known for TVs and computer chips, said it would offer developing countries a royalty-free license to patents related to toilet projects, while promoting the commercialization of the technology in other parts of the world.
The Foundation launched the “Reinvent the Toilet Challenge” in 2011 to advance new technologies that can safely and effectively manage human waste.
The initiative aims to protect people and communities from human fecal-borne pathogens, especially the 3.5 billion or so people who live in dense urban areas with inadequate sanitation infrastructure.
Despite accelerated global urbanization, people in many underdeveloped countries face poor sanitation and hygiene because of lack of access to proper toilets.
According to UNICEF, as of 2019, about 450 million people worldwide lacked a toilet that they used normally, and open defecation is a major source of water pollution, especially in and around poor communities.
About 100,000 children aged 5 and under living in such communities are believed to die each year from diarrheal infections.
For example, in response to this situation, India partnered with the foundation to host the second “Reinvent the Toilet Challenge Expo” in Delhi in 2014.
The Indian government, which fully supports sanitation research and development projects that serve poor communities, may be one of the first beneficiaries of Samsung’s new toilet concept.
[ad_2]
Source link