South Korean toilet turns poop into power and pays students for using it

A toilet at a South Korean university is making going to the toilet pay after one of its professors designed a loo that transforms faeces into energy.

Yes, you read that correctly.

Cho Jae-weon, from the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), created the BeeVi toilet, which uses microorganisms to convert the excrement into methane. The bog also uses a vacuum pump to transfer the faeces to a tank, instead of using water, to further reduce waste.

The energy generated is then used to power items in the university building, such as a gas stove and hot water boiler.

As for the money, Jae-weon created his own virtual currency for users of his toilet, with every person who relieves themselves on it getting 10 Ggool (meaning ‘honey’ in Korean) per day.

Ggool can then be used by students to pay for food and drink such as coffee, fruits and noodles, or books to help with studying.

“I had only ever thought that faeces are dirty, but now it is a treasure of great value to me. I even talk about faeces during mealtimes to think about buying any book I want,” Heo Hui-jin, a postgraduate student, told Reuters.

Alejandro Jodorowsky would be proud. If only our faeces could help us out at university, perhaps with tuition fees...