chickpeas and pigeon pea plants. It demonstrated how a rethink of an everyday facility could address sanitation issues across the world.


This is one of the many ways in which technology is proving to be a force for good in the toilet. Developers are continually coming up with new solutions designed to save water, offset energy and recycle waste products.


For example, researchers at the University of Stirling have created a toilet connected to an anaerobic digester. This converts human waste into biogas which can be used as a clean cooking fuel and also for fertiliser when growing crops.


Meanwhile, an eco-friendly toilet developed at a South Korean university is offsetting energy bills and helping to grow plants on the university’s campus. Human waste is pumped into an underground tank where it is broken down by microorganisms and turned into methane and manure. The fertiliser is spread on the campus gardens while the methane powers the university’s ovens and boilers.


However, technology has not always been put to such impressive uses in the toilet. When it was first introduced it raised a number of questions – not to mention a few eyebrows.


For example, back in the 1980s, the Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo, California, incorporated a waterfall urinal in the gents’ lavatory that could be activated upon breaking a beam of light in the urinal. The aim was to create a talking point and put the venue on the map – and it worked. Although the facility was installed long before the internet was in everyday usage, word travelled fast and the Madonna Inn soon became a popular toilet stop for coach parties eager to try out the facilities.


Around the beginning of the millennium, ‘talking toilets’ also became a trend. These were incorporated into a number of places including the De Balie cultural centre in Amsterdam, where they would remind visitors to wash their hands and ask them to refrain from smoking while in the loo.


This was also around the time when ‘see-through toilets’ began to emerge. These novelty facilities were mainly to be found in bars and restaurants in New York and had disconcertingly transparent walls, which would fog up as soon as the door had been locked from the inside.


Urinal video games also became popular in the early 2000s. These could be played via an LCD screen which was installed above pressure-sensitive urinals allowing the male visitor to play virtual football, drive a car or operate a tank while using the loo.


Toilet technology took off in earnest after the advent of the smartphone in 2007. Suddenly everyone was taking their phone into the toilet with them where they would use their devices to connect to social media.


As it became increasingly common for people to upload images of the facilities they visited, managers were forced to up their game and turn their washrooms into a talking point. Innovations such as hologram mirrors – which appeared in the ladies’ washrooms of the California Katsuya sushi restaurant in Los Angeles, for example – were


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introduced. A bar in Preston installed a red button in the ladies’, which activated a sequence of flashing disco lights accompanied by Abba’s ‘Dancing Queen’ when pressed. Visitors could therefore enjoy a swift ‘party in a toilet’ and share the fun on social media.


Once the novelty of these wacky washrooms begins to wear off, toilet providers started looking at ways in which technology could actually prove useful. For example, there is now a growing number of apps aimed at helping people to find a washroom when they need one. These are proving to be particularly crucial for those who have accessibility or urgency issues.


For example, the WheelMate app is designed to help wheelchair users to find accessible toilets and parking in unfamiliar areas, for example. The Changing Places Toilet Finder app identifies the nearest changing places washrooms – facilities that incorporate extra space, an adult changing bench and a hoist.


The ‘wellness toilet’ is also becoming increasingly popular as a means of screening the user’s health and checking for early signs of illness. These smart toilets use artificial intelligence to analyse human waste and detect early symptoms of illnesses, and sensors in the seat are able to record the user’s blood pressure, blood oxygen levels and other data.


Wellness toilets can also provide nutrition tips and hydration advice and allow women to track their ovulation cycle. They can also be used in public facilities to detect outbreaks of disease and pandemics at an early stage.


Meanwhile, technology is also being used to enhance washroom efficiency in busy facilities. For example, Essity’s own digital solution – Tork Vision Cleaning – uses sensors in the washrooms and dispensers to ‘connect’ the facility. Cleaning and maintenance staff are then able to remotely monitor the washroom via a smartphone or tablet to check when soap and paper supplies are running out or when high traffic means a maintenance check might be likely.


Other technological systems are being used in washrooms for purely pragmatic reasons. For example, automatic taps and flush systems in toilets can help to save water while also reducing the risk of cross-contamination between visitors.


The COVID pandemic made us all aware of the overriding need for health and safety in the washroom. The Stanford University School of Medicine in California addressed this issue by coming up with the COV-ID toilet, which carried out automated stool sampling and alerted the user to their test results in 15 minutes.


Technology has undergone a great many changes since it was first introduced into the washroom for fun. However, it is now proving to be an invaluable force for good as a means of monitoring health, providing sanitation to vulnerable communities, helping people to locate facilities – and ensuring that they remain clean and well stocked at all times.


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