A high-tech startup develops smarter public toilets

Sustainable and at your smartphone

Sometimes it’s hard to find a public toilet and if you can’t or don’t want to enter a café to use its toilet, it’s a big problem. That’s why Throne Labs, a company based in Maryland, is trying to solve this problem with portable and high-tech public toilets. They also want you to say goodbye to the usual smelly toilets we have gotten used to.

Today’s technology can help to handle and provide more tech toilets at less cost. In this regard, Throne Labs thought to use an app to make users find their toilets and through a QR code, people can open them. These toilets contain a flushable toilet and a flush-less urinal, a sink, a trash bin, a mirror, and a ventilation system.

According to this article, the company, founded in June 2020 by Heinzelman, CEO Fletcher Wilson, and three other founding members, piloted its first round of Throne restrooms in Washington DC, last year. Recently, it placed its first permanent Throne at Mount Rainier, Maryland.

Wilson thinks technology may help America’s public restroom scarcity. According to Heinzelman, those without housing, parents with young children, mobile workers, and individuals with disabilities or medical conditions are frequently disproportionately affected by a lack of public restrooms, and Wilson knows firsthand what it means since he suffers from IBS.

“The sanitation industry is one of those that has not really been touched by much innovation and disruption”, says Heinzelman, who’s based in San Francisco. “This felt like a space that could really be open for creative thinking and having a real impact”. 

These toilets are solar-powered and don’t need a connection to water or sewage; but, if the commode doesn’t get direct sunlight, they can be linked to power. The waste is collected in a holding tank under the system, similar to other portable flushing toilets while the gray water from hand washing is used in the dual-flush toilets. The company also uses sensors to detect when to clean the restroom and refill the water tanks.

While accessing a Throne now requires scanning a QR code, Throne Labs is looking at tap-to-enter cards for those without smartphones and aims to collaborate with nonprofits that assist those without housing, according to Heinzelman.

The accountability framework of Throne includes user IDs: You are asked to rate how clean a restroom is after using it. In the meanwhile, each user receives a “Throne score”, and persistent offenders who abuse the toilet will be prohibited. Weight sensors keep track of how long someone stays in the restroom.

“Very few people create issues in public bathrooms, don’t respect that amenity, and then ruin it for the majority. Most people really want and value that clean experience and will leave the bathroom as good as they find it”, Heinzelman says, adding that user IDs are a way to “create the accountability that is currently missing in the shared bathroom space”.

In addition, Throne Labs is developing an ADA-compliant restroom that it plans to debut in March 2023 and is thinking about putting a period product counter in future bathrooms. The long-term ambition is instead to have a regional, national, and possibly an international network of Thrones because everyone needs a bathroom.