It’s Time to Knock the Toilet Off Its Pedestal
The flush toilet may be the world’s gold standard for sanitation, but the sewer infrastructure it demands is inefficient, costly and outdated.
A solid gold toilet, created by artist Maurizio Cattelan, is seen at Blenheim Palace in Woodstock, England.
Photographer: LEON NEAL/Getty Images EuropeWhen people bother to think seriously about sanitation infrastructure, they tend to laud it. In 2007, the British Medical Journal’s readers crowned the sanitary revolution “the most important medical milestone since 1840.” In 2018, the readers of Atlas Obscura dubbed the sewer “the most marvelous everyday invention” in its Mundane Madness competition.
This isn’t wrong, exactly; the vast, largely invisible network of toilets, pipes, and treatment plants that comprise municipal wastewater systems has indeed allowed many of us to live longer, healthier lives in growing cities that don’t reek. We should be grateful for that, and for the people who keep those systems running. But these superficial assessments overlook the ways in which this essential infrastructure, which was devised more than 100 years ago, isn’t serving us now and isn’t up for the challenges of 21st century.