What makes WGAC A Winner?

• Plastic-free: rolls are wrapped in beautiful/funny/artistic paper, not plastic. This paper has a second life in the art supply bin of my daughter.
• Sustainable materials: they offer both recycled paper and bamboo fiber toilet paper.
• Socially and environmentally responsible manufacturing
• Social Impact: According to the company’s mission, a portion of its profits addresses one of the most under-publicized and needed poverty-related global issues — clean water and sanitation. 50% of profits are used to help build toilets and improve sanitation in the developing world 

What’s So Special about Toilets?

Over 2 billion people worldwide don’t have access to a toilet. So what does this mean? History is filled with horrific stories about the implications of poor sanitation. But these conditions don’t just live in the distant past of bed-pans and privy holes. According to the World Health Organization’s latest on sanitation, close to 2 billion people do not have access to the most basic sanitation. As a result, close to 500 million defecate in public spaces such as street gutters or bodies of water.

Like most disease-borne illnesses, the very young and vulnerable suffer the most. Almost 300k children under five die yearly from diarrheal diseases, including cholera and dysentery. What makes these illnesses so fatal in these situations is the double whammy impact of poor sanitation, causing water supply contamination. The human body is composed of almost 60% water, which is why diarrheal diseases are so fatal. With no access to clean water, the chance of recovery is low.

“Open defecation perpetuates a vicious cycle of disease and poverty. The countries where open defection is most widespread have the highest number of deaths of children aged under 5 years as well as the highest levels of malnutrition and poverty, and big disparities of wealth.” — World Health Organization: Sanitation

Enter the toilet to save the day. Sanitation is simple and builds on processes found in nature. The biggest hurdle faced is the need for more space. A traditional septic system uses the earth as a filter, with special underground pipes directing the sewage from a holding tank into lines deep underground, feeding into a leach field. For this simple system to work, enough open space must exist to sufficiently filter the wastewater. New technologies such as composting toilets (which, to be honest, aren’t very unique) enable safe sanitation with a significantly smaller footprint. Unfortunately, the amount of sewage they can handle is considerably less.