Jasmine Burton helped design an affordable, moveable plastic rest room to handle the dearth of fundamental sanitation world wide.
Everyone poops. However not everybody has entry to a rest room.
“It’s shocking that this basic necessity is unavailable to nearly half of the world,” mentioned Jasmine Burton, founder and president of Atlanta-based Want for WASH.
Burton, 23, was a freshman at Georgia Institute of Expertise when she realized that as many as 2.5 billion individuals haven’t got entry to a rest room.
It bothered her much more that this sanitation drawback disproportionately impacts girls and younger ladies.
“Young girls in the developing world frequently drop out of school because there isn’t a toilet,” she mentioned. “It angered me as a woman in higher education and as a product designer.”
Simply 18 on the time, Burton channeled her emotions right into a mission: She would design a rest room.
Whereas at Georgia Tech, she collaborated with three different college students to invent an affordable, eco-friendly cell rest room that might convert waste into renewable power. They referred to as their sanitation system SafiChoo Bathroom.
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Product of plastic, the bathroom is designed for sitting or squatting, which is a standard follow in some nations. It may be positioned immediately on the bottom, or it may be elevated by including an attachable base. It might additionally operate with or with out water.
The system encompasses a waste assortment unit (that may go above or under floor), which separates the waste into liquids and solids. There’s additionally a manually-operated bidet that may be hooked up.
Jasmine Burton [center] in Kenya in Might 2014 the place her staff did a pilot take a look at of the SafiChoo rest room.
Burton mentioned these options are supposed to assist curb contamination and the unfold of illnesses.
The SafiChoo rest room prices about $50. “That’s the highest price point we want it to be,” she mentioned
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In 2014, Burton and her staff gained first place and $25,000 on the Georgia Tech InVention competitors, the nation’s largest undergraduate invention competitors.
“We didn’t think we’d win because products at the contest were always high-tech with super sexy designs,” she mentioned. “Ours was a simple toilet.”
Burton first examined the SafoChoo Bathroom at a refugee camp in Kenya.
The win enabled Burton to pilot SafiChoo (which suggests clear rest room in Kiswahili) at a Kenyan refugee camp. She additionally launched Want for WASH, the mum or dad firm of SafiChoo.
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John Zegers, director at Georgia Middle of Innovation for Manufacturing, contacted Burton after her InVention competitors win. “We thought it was a great product that needed a little bit more development,” he mentioned.
The Middle gave a grant to Georgia Tech to develop a SafiChoo prototype and helped Burton’s staff discover an Atlanta-based producer.
Zegers mentioned he hopes that Want for WASH is ready to preserve the bathroom a Made in America product.
Burton is at the moment residing in Lusaka, Zambia, as she assessments the bathroom there. The corporate can be operating an Indiegogo marketing campaign to assist the Zambia pilot.
She hopes to start promoting the bathroom to U.S.-based prospects and to NGOs in 2017.
“It’s amazing when you see how many people have never used a toilet before and what [the SafiChoo Toilet] could mean for them,” she mentioned.
CNNMoney (New York) First revealed January 22, 2016: 7:55 AM ET
