The toilet as we know it has existed in much the same form for centuries. So where do you start if you are charged with reinventing it?

For more than a decade, Shannon Yee¹ has been working on this – perhaps surprisingly – difficult problem. A professor at Georgia Institute of Technology², a top-tier public research university based in the US, Yee is full of stories about what’s required to undertake such a challenge. These include running a series of tests nicknamed ‘Will it flush?’ to discover what happens when foreign objects such as plastic bags or toy cars go down the toilet, or “accidentally shooting feces 20 feet in the air and splattering it on the ceiling,” he says.

“What I love about this story is that everybody poops. It’s very relatable. But it’s also a very serious topic.”

Sanitation Crisis

About 3.5 billion people worldwide lack access to safely managed sanitation, and 1.5 billion are without even basic sanitation services³, such as private toilets or latrines. This affects well-being and social and economic development⁴ and is linked to the spread of disease including cholera, diarrhea and typhoid. Approximately 1,000 children under five die every day⁵ as a result.

Primarily, the world's poorest communities struggle with the lack of safe sanitation. But more developed areas are also affected. More than 700 million urban residents live in slums and informal settlements with poor sanitation⁶. City infrastructures are feeling the pressure, too, as existing sewers and treatment plants reach the end of their lifespans. In England, for example, 80% of wastewater systems regularly work over capacity⁷, with sewage overflows entering waterways and posing a risk to public health.

Reinventing the Toilet

Addressing the global sanitation crisis is a strategic priority for water and housing product maker LIXIL, which has been working with Yee and his Georgia Tech-led global collaboration of almost 100 engineers, scientists and industrial designers on the Generation II Reinvented Toilet¹⁰, or G2RT.

From Concept to Commercial Product

LIXIL has been a part of the project throughout its development, acting in partnership with Georgia Tech as a commercial adviser, front-end developer and manufacturer. It delivered 24 front-end prototypes for laboratory tests in the US and Europe and in-home field trials in India and South Africa.

The results of the testing suggest the reinvented toilet product would be able to achieve international sanitation standards, and LIXIL is now readying to advance the project’s next phase as its first commercial license partner.

“When I joined the team,” recalls G2RT Managing Director Lisa Bianchi-Fossati, “I said to Shannon, the biggest thing I need to know is are you serious about this becoming a product and having an impact on people’s lives? If the project just goes into a dusty journal on a shelf somewhere, I’m less interested. He assured me that they were very committed to making it an actual product.

“I find the vision and values alignment with LIXIL to be tremendous,” she adds.

Viable and Sustainable

For LIXIL, the next step is to refine the technology to create products suitable for both private- and public-sector use.

Disrupting Traditional Infrastructure

Partnering for Impact

The reinvented toilet project is driven by a part of LIXIL called LIXIL Public Partners. The division works alongside the public sector to commercialize innovative solutions to water, sanitation and hygiene issues, such as working with the Alabama Department of Public Health and the University of South Alabama to address complex sanitation challenges in the US state.

Turning great ideas into viable solutions that elevate living standards through improved sanitation and hygiene is one of three strategic pillars of LIXIL’s Impact Strategy. Through this plan, the company is working to achieve its purpose of making better homes a reality for everyone, everywhere, with a target of improving sanitation and hygiene for 100 million people around the world by 2025.

Through innovations including its SATO brand – which creates affordable products for use in areas lacking access to reliable sanitation – the company has reached approximately 68 million people globally to date.

Partnering to drive transformative ideas like the G2RT forward will be one way LIXIL will seek to reach even more people worldwide, as will continuing to invest in LIXIL's existing solutions with SATO and our ecosystem building work in partnership with UNICEF, USAID, and the Toilet Board Coalition.

“We want LIXIL to be seen as a partner where we can develop solutions and business models that tackle the critical sanitation and hygiene gap today and in the future, working alongside all government, private sector, and community stakeholders,” says McCusker.