There are 2.5 billion people around the world who don’t have access to safe, affordable sanitation systems. That means every time they go to the bathroom they have to put themselves in an unhealthy or dangerous situation.

It’s a problem that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation believes can be solved by innovative technologies. And through their Reinvent The Toilet Challenge, they’ve recruited scientists and engineers from around the world to make new types of toilets and public sanitation systems for places that can’t afford modern upgrades. One of the companies they’ve funded, New Zealand-based Scion Research (a government-owned company), is developing a new type of toilet that used pressure and microwave technology to treat sewage right in people’s homes.

Read more at The Daily Beast.