Water crisis threatens more than half the world’s population. Today, one in nine people lacks access to safe, clean drinking water, and as of 2016, 4 billion people face severe water scarcity for consumption, household use, and industrial activities.
To address this massive water shortage, scientists are searching for new sources of fresh water, such as desalinated saltwater and moisture harvested from air. On the other hand, strategies for reducing water usage have received much less attention. Each day, citizens in the developed world send 141 billion liters of water down the drain — flushing an estimated 1 billion toilets several times a day.
In the U.S., a typical toilet flush uses 6 L — and flushing remains the largest contributor of indoor household wastewater production. Rainwater toilets and self-contained dry toilets are potential solutions, but they rely on the local environment and resource availability...
At Pennsylvania State Univ. (PSU), mechanical engineers have developed a slippery toilet coating that reduces the water needed to flush a toilet by up to 50%. The coating, which can be applied to any toilet, addresses the
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