Is This Dog a Source of Clean Energy?
We all love our dogs and cats. But their poop is becoming a serious problem here in the U.S.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the average dog creates 274 pounds of waste a year. That’s a lot of dog poop! But if one dog outputs an amazing 274 pounds of dung a year, just think how much waste every dog and cat in the U.S. must create each year. According to William Brinton, president of Woods Ends Laboratories, Inc. — which has been studying animal waste for the past 36 years — the total is more than 10 million tons!
Every year, 4 million tons of dog poop from that mind-boggling 10 million tons of dung pollute our waterways, contaminating our drinking water. The poop problem doesn’t affect just water, either. When people come in contact with dog poop in parks and campgrounds and other places, they can contract parasites from it. Dogs can get parasites as well from eating dog poop.
The pet waste problem has become so bad that it led to the creation of an annual National Scoop the Poop Week (April 24-30) to encourage us dog owners to scoop our dogs’ poop and dispose of it properly.
To reduce the health risks to us and our four-footed companions, we need to eliminate dog poop. What are our choices? Two come readily to mind: tossing the dung in the trash and using septic-type dog waste disposal systems.
Tossing dog poop in the trash certainly gets it out of sight, but doesn’t resolve the dung problem. It simply consolidates the waste and moves it to another location, often the town or city dump.
Dog poop waste displsal systems, which are similar to septic systems for humans, effectively eliminate the dog waste. These systems are great, but — and don’t get me wrong — getting rid of the dung is all they do. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if, in addition to being broken down, the poop could also be put it to some kind of beneficial use?
Recently an article in the The Washington Post talked about a third kind of dog waste disposal system that does just that — by using dog poop to light a street lamp. Called the “Park Spark” poop converter, the system was invented by an artist named Matthew Mazzotta for a month-long clean-energy experiment in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Mazzotta placed his dog poop waste disposal system in Pacific Street Park, which is in a run-down section of Cambridge. The system consists of two 500-gallon oil tanks that are attached to a street lamp. Dog owners put their dogs’ poop in one tank and then turn a wheel to mix the dung with water. Enzimes in the tank create methane, which then lights the street lamp.
Mazzotta created his dog waste disposal system for several reasons:
- To create a work of art for the park
- To get people to think “differently about what’s around them”
- To provide a source of “clean energy and better waste disposal”
Mazzotta might be on to something — especially since people in other countries use poop to create energy.
Unfortunately, though, Mazzotta doesn’t plan to develop his dog waste disposal system into something marketable. But maybe someone else will. Perhaps dog poop as clean energy is a technological idea whose time is about to come.
You can read the entire Washington Post article here.
Tags: clean energy, dog poop