 Throne Labs logo | |
| Company type | Privately held company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Sanitation |
| Founded | 2020 Washington, D.C., US |
| Founder | Fletcher Wilson |
| Website | www |
Throne Labs is a technology company that provides a "smart toilet" distributed network of portable toilets in the United States.
The company was founded in June 2020 in Washington D.C. by Fletcher Wilson, who has experienced issues related to irritable bowel syndrome throughout his life and wanted to create a scalable public restroom solution for cities in the United States. [1] As of 2021, United States ranks 30th globally in public bathrooms per capita, tied with Botswana with 8 public toilets per 100,000 citizens. [2] Wilson now serves as the company's CEO.
Throne Labs raised angel funding from Sandalphon Capital, Dipalo Ventures, Uncorrelated Ventures, and Ravin Gandhi. [3] [4] [5]
Throne Labs provides solar-powered portable toilets that feature a running water sink, flushing toilet, and ventilation. The units use sensor technology to monitor use and optimize the cleaning schedules. [6] [7]
Throne Lab units are free to use for consumers, who enter the units using a mobile app or QR code. As of 2024, the company operates units in Washington D.C., [8] [9] Virginia, [10] [11] [12] Los Angeles, [13] [14] and Ann Arbor. [15] [16]
Ann Arbor is a city in and the county seat of Washtenaw County, Michigan, United States. The 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851, making it the fifth-most populous city in Michigan. It is the principal city of the Ann Arbor metropolitan area, which encompasses all of Washtenaw County and had 372,258 residents in 2020. Ann Arbor is also included in the Metro Detroit combined statistical area and the Great Lakes megalopolis.
Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology is a Virginia state-chartered magnet high school in Fairfax County, Virginia operated by Fairfax County Public Schools. The school occupies the building of the previous Thomas Jefferson High School. A selective admissions program was initiated in 1985 through the cooperation of state and county governments, as well as corporate sponsorship from the defense and technology industries. It is one of 18 Virginia Governor's Schools, and a founding member of the National Consortium for Specialized Secondary Schools of Mathematics, Science and Technology.
A squat toilet is a toilet used by squatting, rather than sitting. This means that the posture for defecation and for female urination is to place one foot on each side of the toilet drain or hole and to squat over it. There are several types of squat toilets, but they all consist essentially of a toilet pan or bowl at floor level. Such a toilet pan is also called a "squatting pan". A squat toilet may use a water seal and therefore be a flush toilet, or it can be without a water seal and therefore be a dry toilet. The term "squat" refers only to the expected defecation posture and not any other aspects of toilet technology, such as whether it is water flushed or not.
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Toilets in Japan are sometimes designed more elaborately than toilets commonly seen in other developed nations. European toilets occasionally have a separate bidet whilst Japan combines an electronic bidet with the toilet. The current state of the art for Western-style toilets in Japan is the bidet toilet, which as of March 2016 is installed in 81% of Japanese households. In Japan, these bidets are commonly called washlets, a brand name of Toto Ltd., and they may include many advanced features rarely seen outside of Asia. The basic feature set commonly found on washlets consists of anal hygiene, bidet washing, seat warming, and deodorization.
A public toilet, restroom, public bathroom or washroom is a room or small building with toilets and sinks for use by the general public. The facilities are available to customers, travelers, employees of a business, school pupils or prisoners and are commonly separated into male and female toilets, although some are unisex, especially for small or single-occupancy public toilets, public toilets are sometimes accessible to people with disabilities. Depending on the culture, there may be varying degrees of separation between males and females and different levels of privacy. Typically, the entire room, or a stall or cubicle containing a toilet, is lockable. Urinals, if present in a male toilet, are typically mounted on a wall with or without a divider between them. Local authorities or commercial businesses may provide public toilet facilities. Some are unattended while others are staffed by an attendant. In many cultures, it is customary to tip the attendant, especially if they provide a specific service, such as might be the case at upscale nightclubs or restaurants.
A chemical toilet collects human excreta in a holding tank and uses chemicals to minimize odors. They do not require a connection to a water supply and are used in a variety of situations. These toilets are usually, but not always, self-contained and movable. A chemical toilet is structured around a relatively small tank, which requires frequent emptying. It is not connected to a hole in the ground, nor to a septic tank, nor is it plumbed into a municipal system leading to a sewage treatment plant. When the tank is emptied, the contents are usually pumped into a sanitary sewer or directly to a treatment plant.
A pay toilet is a public toilet that requires the user to pay. It may be street furniture or be inside a building, e.g. a shopping mall, department store, or railway station. The reason for charging money is usually for the maintenance of the equipment. Paying to use a toilet can be traced back almost 2000 years, to the first century BCE. The charge is often collected by an attendant or by inserting coins into an automatic turnstile; in some freestanding toilets in the street, the fee is inserted into a slot by the door. Mechanical coin operated locks are also used. Some more high tech toilets accept card or contactless payments. Sometimes, a token can be used to enter a pay toilet without paying the charge. Some municipalities offer these tokens to residents with disabilities so these groups aren't discriminated against by the pay toilet. Some establishments such as cafés and restaurants offer tokens to their customers so they can use the toilets for free but other users must pay the relevant charge.
Potty parity is equal or equitable provision of public toilet facilities for females and males within a public space.
Unisex public toilets are public toilets that are not separated by gender or sex.
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A bathroom bill is the common name for legislation or a statute that denies access to public toilets by gender or transgender identity. Bathroom bills affect access to sex-segregated public facilities for an individual based on a determination of their sex as defined in some specific way, such as their sex as assigned at birth, their sex as listed on their birth certificate, or the sex that corresponds to their gender identity. A bathroom bill can either be inclusive or exclusive of transgender individuals, depending on the aforementioned definition of their sex.
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The Portland Loo is a type of single-occupancy public toilet designed by the city of Portland, Oregon. It is manufactured, sold, and marketed by the Portland-based manufacturer Madden Fabrication under license from the city, for $96,000 each. The first unit was installed in the Old Town Chinatown neighborhood in Portland in 2008. Since the first unit was installed, additional 54 units have been purchased by February 2018, mostly by 20 other cities and 15 of them within the city of Portland.
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New York City contains approximately 1,100 publicly managed toilets, as well as an unknown number of privately owned toilets. As of 2017, there were around 3.5 million housing units in New York City, while private toilets also exist in offices and other non-residential establishments.
The Bryant Park restroom is a public toilet in Bryant Park, an urban park in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The 315-square-foot (29.3 m2) structure was built at the same time as the New York Public Library Main Branch and designed by the same architects. It opened in 1911 and closed in the 1960s as the surrounding park deteriorated. It was restored in the 1990s and underwent renovations in 2006 and 2017, modeled after luxury hotel bathrooms. With flowers, automatic toilets, original artwork, classical music, and an attendant, it is often regarded as among the best public bathrooms in the city, used by more than a million people per year.