Bill Gates wants to reinvent the toilet, saying a different design could save 500k lives and USD 233 bn a year, according to Bloomberg. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has funded USD 200 mn-worth of sanitation research and presented some 20 new toilet models that are healthier, more advanced, and much more economical in a recent exposition in Beijing. The models could prevent up to half a mn infant deaths and curb USD 233bn in costs linked to diarrhea, cholera, and other diseases. This new market could potentially generate USD 6 bn annually and had already attracted leading companies including Japan’s LIXIL Group (watch, runtime: 0:57).

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