Park Spark lights park lamps with dog waste


Remember when we reported on that Geneco VW Beetle that can run on human waste? Yes, there were a lot of great jokes made on that one, the best ones in your comments.

This one particular project also sounds like a joke, but it is an experiment by conceptual artist Matthew Mazzotta. This is a way of powering lamps at parks by one thing that parks have way too much of: dog doo.

Yes, here is how it works. You pick up the dog doo at the park, and then toss them into the bags and into the “methane digester”. You can then turn a crank to stir the waste up, which will break down the microbes in the organic material and create methane. This methane is fed up into a gas lamp which burns it, thus creating light from the flame.

As you can see, the project has a catchy name of “Park Spark”. It is pretty cool to see some waste disposal get combined with clean energy. After all, we have do something to clean up the waste and use it to create power. Isn’t this what saving the planet is all about? Anything that eliminates waste and creates energy is okay with me.

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