The World Needs Toilets

Rahul Mehrotra, of RMA Architects based in India, spoke at the National Architecture conference attended by Terry and myself in Sydney last month. Rahul got our attention at the tail end of the conference on the subject of toilets. The statistics are staggering. Over 60% of people in India do not have access to safe and private toilets. Rahul quoted the Government’s aspirational target is to have one toilet for every 50 people. That is, one loo for every 10 families! Think about that the next time you have to compete with a family member for access to the toilet. As 50% of Australian houses have two people or less (and generally at least two toilets) the disparity is huge. Edmiston Jones GBB is working hard to reduce our environmental impact. Lucia talked about our use of recycled paper and office compost bins in a recent blog. Our focus on reducing our environmental footprint is embraced by the firm and has an advocate in Meagan, a member of our administrative team. With her prompting, our toilet paper is now being supplied by Who Gives a Crap. Who Gives a Crap was started through a crowdfunding campaign when the founders learnt that 2.4 billion people across the world don't have access to a toilet. That's roughly 40% of the global population and means that diarrhoea related diseases fill over half of sub-Saharan African hospital beds and kill 900 children under 5 every day. The paper used is 100% recycled bamboo or sugarcane fibres and free of any dyes, inks, or scents. 50% of Who Gives a Crap’s profits are donated to help build toilets and improve sanitation in the developing world. Order your environmentally sustainable loo paper now!