Having just returned from a festival where I enjoyed the use of some very impressive 'compost loos', as opposed to the more traditional type - and about to head off to another, which is likely to offer yet another way of dealing with human waste, it was with interest that I read briefly about the winners of the Bill Gates Foundation's 'Reinvent the Toilet' challenge (see more below).

The ones I've become used to over the past week are very basic but they're great for the environment as they don't require any water at all. A bucket of sawdust, some anti-bacterial handwash and a little solar lighting is all that's needed to keep everything fresh and easy to use and I didn't notice any unpleasant smells emanating from any of the little blocks of wooden huts in the six days I was away.

It's incredible just what the human brain can come up with when there's a real need, isn't it?

And with vast swathes of the world without adequate sanitation - and growing demands on Mother Earth's water resources, there is a real need in this area.  I'm looking forward to learning more about the attributes of those schemes that caught the Microsoft founder's eye and will report back in our next issue.

You'll have to wait a while though, as John & I are taking our annual holidays and our next issue won't be broadcast until Friday 7th September.

We will be keeping an eye on our emails while we're away though, so if you have anything of interest to share with our readers, do please let us know about it.

Jan Hobbs