The United States is getting its first-ever certification site for alternative, non-sewered toilet systems, and it's going to be on Cape Cod.
As part of its Reinvented Toilet Initiative, the Gates Foundation has awarded the Massachusetts Alternative Septic System Technology Center (MASSTC) $2.8 million to get the facility in Sandwich ready to test and certify alternative toilets. The hope is that these toilets could be used in remote areas of the world that do not have sufficient sanitation systems.
MASSTC director Brian Baumgaertel went before the Barnstable County Board of Regional Commissioners recently to explain MASSTC's role in the initiative.
“There are some 3.6 billion people on this planet who don't have good access to sanitation systems,” he said. “We take for granted our flush toilets every day, but there are a lot of people who don't even have that.”
The county commissioners unanimously approved the grant agreement.
This partnership between MASSTC and the Gates Foundation has been in progress since 2023.
“They approached us about a year and a half ago or so at this point and the director of their Water, Sanitation and Hygiene section came out and visited with us,” Baumgaertel said. “I think they walked away quite impressed with the facility that we have out there.”
With the grant money, MASSTC will be able to update its facility to comply with ISO 30500.
“It's an international standard that was developed within the last few years with the intention of vetting these technologies to make sure that they function well and that they can function with minimal intervention,” Baumgaertel said.
The goal is that by next year, MASSTC will be testing out alternative toilet systems, with the goal of bringing some of those systems to market by 2027.
MASSTC is a division of Barnstable County government and is located on Joint Base Cape Cod.
