There’s no shortage of need when it comes to bathrooms: 2.6 billion people currently live without access to adequate sanitation. The lack of toilets and bad hand washing habits cause 6.3 percent of all deaths worldwide according to the U.S. CDC.
There’s also (sadly?) no shortage of potty puns out there for the do-gooders trying to help. The best known effort is probably World Toilet Day, which organized the Big Squat in 2010. They now have the “Toilet Paper,” a.k.a. research. There’s also the People’s Own Organic Power project (get it?). They have the “Eat Sh!t” fundraising event declaring “brown is the new black.”
Now there’s a business joining these cheeky charities. Simon Griffiths is an entrepreneur and co-founder of Good Goods. He’s “sitting down for what [he] believes in.”
Specifically he’s sitting on a toilet with a livestream on him until he raises enough money via IndieGoGo to launch his toilet paper business. He’s wearing boxer shorts and mostly using his laptop so it’s pretty sanitary viewing.
He says he won’t leave the loo—he’s Australian so it swirls in the opposite direction and it’s called a loo—until he raises $50,000 to fund the first production run of “Who Gives A Crap” philanthropic toilet paper. (Not to be confused with MTV’s listless but foul-mouthed “Who Gives A Shit” campaign.)
Half of all the profits from this noble paper product will go to WaterAid, a nonprofit that works for clean water and sanitation in the third world. It’s kind of like the TOMS shoes of toilets—except it’s probably more effective to send cash than rolls of paper. “It’s 100% recycled, super soft philanthropic toilet paper,” co-founder Danny Alexander wrote to GOOD. “We’re hoping to get as much coverage as quickly as possible to get Simon off the loo.”
Please, end the poop puns and help Simon sell toilet paper.
