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Saving Water One Flush At A Time : Short Wave Happy World Toilet Day! Flushing toilets can consume a lot of water, so Tak-Sing Wong, a biomedical engineer at Penn State University, is trying to minimize how much is needed. Wong developed a slippery coating for the inside of a toilet bowl. It can potentially move human waste more efficiently, leaving a cleaner bowl and using less water. Follow host Maddie Sofia on Twitter @maddie_sofia. Email the show at shortwave@npr.org.

Short Wave

Saving Water One Flush At A Time

Saving Water One Flush At A Time

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More than 140 billion liters of fresh water are estimated to be flushed down the toilet every day. Paolo Cordoni / EyeEm/Getty Images hide caption

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Paolo Cordoni / EyeEm/Getty Images

More than 140 billion liters of fresh water are estimated to be flushed down the toilet every day.

Paolo Cordoni / EyeEm/Getty Images

Happy World Toilet Day! Flushing toilets can consume a lot of water, so Tak-Sing Wong, a biomedical engineer at Penn State University, is trying to minimize how much is needed. Wong developed a slippery coating for the inside of a toilet bowl. It can potentially move human waste more efficiently, leaving a cleaner bowl and using less water. Follow host Maddie Sofia on Twitter @maddie_sofia. Email the show at shortwave@npr.org.

Related Link:
Viscoelastic solid-repellent coatings for extreme water saving and global sanitation in Nature Sustainability (paywalled)

Jing Wang, Lin Wang, Nan Sun, Ross Tierney, Hui Li, Margo Corsetti, Leon Williams, Pak Kin Wong & Tak-Sing Wong

This episode was produced by Brit Hanson and edited by Viet Le.