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Dogs help us in so many ways, from herding cattle to sniffing out everything from bombs to cancer. They’re our eyes, ears and limbs when we’re disabled, and they predict epileptic seizures. They offer social support and health benefits, and they can even rescue us from drowning.
It seems that the only drawback to owning a dog is the unpleasant chore of having to pick up its poop, but a dog park in Cambridge, Mass., is showing how even that chore can have a silver lining.
PhysOrg.com is reporting on The Park Spark project, a methane digester that runs on dog waste. Recently installed at the Pacific Street Dog Park in Cambridge, the “scientific-art intervention†was conceived by conceptual artist Matthew Mazzotta, and is the first dog park methane digester in the United States. It works by transforming dog waste into methane, which is then used to power a lamppost in the park. The park provides biodegradable dog waste bags, and encourages dog owners to drop their pup’s waste into the methane digester’s feeding tube. A turn of the hand crank, and voilà : The mixture of excrement and anaerobic bacteria helps the methane rise to the top where it can be burned.
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