There you are, just sitting on a park bench, with the smell of dog poo wafting toward your nostrils because someone didn’t bother to pick up after their pet. It would be great if that poo was gone. And it would also be great to be using free Wi-Fi to Tweet about how crappy it is that it smells like poo, wouldn’t it? A park in Mexico City is trying to solve both of those problems in one go, with poop-fueled free Wi-Fi.
Consumerist commenter catastrophegirl directed our attention to an interesting idea being bandied about over at CNET, wherein Mexican Internet provider Terra is working with ad agency DDB to offer free Wi-Fi in public parks. It’s called Poo Wi-Fi, of course.
The catch is, dog owners need to deposit poop in special bins in order to be get free Wi-Fi broadcast through doggy bone-shaped routers. The more poop that goes in the bins in 10 parks across the country, the more free Wi-Fi minutes you — and those around you — get.
The bins appear to have a scale that weighs the poop, so hopefully people won’t just put rocks or other stuff in to scam the system. Honor, people. Poo honor! During the day, eat least, staffers will be on watch at the bins to deter poo pretenders.
As catastrophegirl points out, maybe we could use this kind of thing in the U.S., especially at those apartment complexes with poo problems: “Perhaps some HOAs should use this for wi-fi around the condo complex.”
For free Wi-Fi, please deposit your dog poop here [CNET]
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What if I don’t have a dog? Can I…you know…?
Please remember…just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.
“During the day, eat least…”
Somebody’s a little distracted by her diet.
MB always tosses in one or two mistakes on her posts, the world might end if she actually proofread and caught her mistakes before posting them.
Because when your looking for fresh ideas about technology and public cleanliness you need look no further than Mexico.
Step 1. – Solve dog poop problem at park.
Step 2. – Solve human poop problem everywhere else.
Why not just have bins for the dog crap and use the methane to create electricity for general use? I mean, sure; go ahead and put wifi in the dog parks (???) but poop for fuel isn’t a new idea. In fact, we should be using human waste to make fuel and fertilizer.
I’m not sure this is actually poop-powered… it looks like it’s just a bribe, basically, with a scale to register the goods.
Yeah. I was expecting some actual power to be generated, based on the headline. Seems not to be the case, though.
Sir, why are you squeezing that dog above that bin?
I can’t stream any videos on this crappy wi-fi.
Two dogs, one hotspot.
Based upon the headline, I was expecting a biofuel solution that would break down and compost the dog poo and turn it into electricity. The true story is much like a pavlovian response… which oddly enough started off with dogs.
Yea I don’t see this as something that will catch on. Perhaps what we should do is cross-breed dogs with deer and/or rabbits so that they decide instead of meat they prefer to eat grasses. In turn they can produce pellets of poop which are easily broken down into fertilizer instead of the massive piles of nastiness they currently produce. Then nobody would have to pick them up, the smell would be exponentially less, and the grass would thank you.
So get to it scientists… stop researching those silly Parkinsons and Cancer cures and start figuring out how to breed dogs that eat grass and poop pellets!
Or breed dogs and cats. Works on the cat box.
I prefer the “pick up your dogs’ poop and you will not be shot in the face” persuasion method.
Aww I was hoping it burned the poo to actually power the router. I’m disappointed.
Sounds good, but probably not practical. I don’t see how this solves the basic problem of people being too selfish/careless to clean up after their dogs. This device (as I understand it) will reward both the picker-uppers and the people who leave it lie, so it’s the same situation as before — and I don’t know what percentage of people actually even care if they have wi-fi when they’re out with their dogs.
USE COW POOP– FREE WI-FI FOR ALL.
Seriously. Given our love of burgers, there are more than enough cows to power public wi-fi. And they generate lots of poop.