Bill Gates’ toilet moment

It all started with a tweet this week from Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates: “4 out of 10 people don’t have a safe way to poop – that’s 2.6 billion!” Calling for a “toilet revolution,” the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation called for  “new ideas to help reduce disease and find new ways to turn crap into valuable stuff, like fuel, fertilizer, and fresh water.” Gates decided to put his money into finding a new toilet design that are “hygienic and sustainable, discharge no pollutants, generate energy, recover nutrients and only need a tiny amount of water.” The foundation’s initiative attracted researchers from Britain, China, Canada, California, the Netherlands and Switzerland to the “Reinvent the Toilet Fair” in Seattle. Recipients of $400,000 grants from the Gates Foundation came together to report their progress on Tuesday, August 14.

Read the full story in The Huffington Post.