The Camp Toilet

I have been following Microsoft founder, Bill Gates as he travels to China for the Reinvented Toilet Expo. Don’t laugh - this is real and serious. Human waste, and primarily the non-treatment and mishandling of it leads to a half-million deaths each year. Read Mr. Gates’ remarks.

Summer camp stereotypes include food, staff, bunks, crazy wildlife and of course - toilets. My favorite comes from the movie, Ernest Goes to Camp.

Usually our guests don’t have to think of the toilets - and where they flush to very often. The staff at Sound View work very hard to keep the systems working and the septic fields pumped and routinely inspected.

Yet, we, along with the rest of the rural nation, employ this very old, expensive, limiting process of disposing of human waste which the Gates Foundation brilliantly hopes will be replaced by something better. I hope so too. Developing new areas of camp is stalled by the pricey process of engineering septic systems.

Imagine the rethinking and adopting of a new standard, sustainable toilet. Not only will millions of lives be saved throughout the planet, but there will one less camp stereotype to make fun of.