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Oregon has legalized human composting

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Re: Oregon has legalized human composting

#71

Post by croisillon »

rjbwork wrote: post #22
wonderwonder wrote: post #11

Why can't people just opt to be buried without embalming or a casket? Sounds like a nice way to go buried whole and maybe with some sort of tree seed that grows over where you are laid. Not going to lie on a personal level, the composting process sounds terrible.

Personally I'd opt for a Mongolian style sky burial. They just take you out onto a mountainside, cut you up a little bit, and the carrion birds and other animals come to eat you up. Seems like the quickest way to return your elements to the earth.

how about "whale fall" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale_fall) burial, feeding the oceans

Re: Oregon has legalized human composting

#72

Post by refactor_master »

ed_balls wrote: post #19

I wonder what is the risk of prions diseases. > A 68 kg (150 lbs) body which contains 65% water will require 100 MJ of thermal energy before any combustion will take place. 100 MJ is approximately equivalent to 3 m3 (105 ft3) of natural gas, or 3 liters of fuel oil (0.8 US gallons). Additional energy is necessary to make up for the heat capacity ("preheating") of the furnace, fuel burned for emissions control, and he…

What does any of this have to do with prions though? If anything, the emissions are probably worse from a public health perspective.

Re: Oregon has legalized human composting

#73

Post by chucka9 »

giardini wrote: post #67
cascom wrote: post #2

What happens to embedded e-waste/trash in humans (pace makers, artificial hips, implants, etc.)?

I was told by an elderly foreign gentleman that he made his living by removing such things from bodies before burial or cremation. He said that the metals in teeth were most of his business.

The metals in vascular stents and coils is valuable too (but imagine trying to retrieve those).

I know someone who saved up the ones dropped or otherwise opened and not used on a cath lab. I’m not sure what he did after that.

Re: Oregon has legalized human composting

#74

Post by manquer »

boringg wrote: post #36
wonderwonder wrote: post #11

Why can't people just opt to be buried without embalming or a casket? Sounds like a nice way to go buried whole and maybe with some sort of tree seed that grows over where you are laid. Not going to lie on a personal level, the composting process sounds terrible.

What about getting set up on pyre in Varanasi? To be fair, not really a green option (CO2 emissions) but feels a bit more natural than being buried

CO2 is least of the problems with varansi. From disease vectors to river pollution there is ton of issues with it.

Re: Oregon has legalized human composting

#75

Post by prepend »

paulpauper wrote: post #61

Recompose, the country’s first human composting funeral home does it like this: a corpse is placed in a cylinder with organic materials, like wood chips, plants, and straw, then heated and turned repeatedly for several weeks with a hook until it’s broken down into a nutrient-rich soil that can be delivered back to the family or used for planting. It's like what the mafia used to do to dissolve bodies

This description seems unpleasant, especially the hook part. I expect they need some better description that doesn’t involve people picturing themself or their loved ones being torn up by a hook.

Re: Oregon has legalized human composting

#76

Post by prepend »

refactor_master wrote: post #72
ed_balls wrote: post #19

I wonder what is the risk of prions diseases. > A 68 kg (150 lbs) body which contains 65% water will require 100 MJ of thermal energy before any combustion will take place. 100 MJ is approximately equivalent to 3 m3 (105 ft3) of natural gas, or 3 liters of fuel oil (0.8 US gallons). Additional energy is necessary to make up for the heat capacity ("preheating") of the furnace, fuel burned for emissions control, and he…

What does any of this have to do with prions though? If anything, the emissions are probably worse from a public health perspective.

Cremation will destroy prions. Composting will not. I guess the issue would be with prions from a composting brain getting into food supply.

I’m not sure how real of a concern this is as deer with CWD die and decompose and I’m not aware of any transmission in this way.

Re: Oregon has legalized human composting

#77

Post by walterlb »

Y_Y wrote: post #29
1-6 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since prions are found abundantly in the head, just bury or lock away the skulls and treat them like nuclear waste. Compost or cremate the rest of the body.

This is a solved problem! My startup is building modern, cutting-edge catacombs where we're redefining what it means to have a huge, underground maze full of decomposing human heads.

Great! Legacy underground mazes full of decomposing human heads are such a pain.

Re: Oregon has legalized human composting

#78

Post by prepend »

Y_Y wrote: post #29
1-6 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since prions are found abundantly in the head, just bury or lock away the skulls and treat them like nuclear waste. Compost or cremate the rest of the body.

This is a solved problem! My startup is building modern, cutting-edge catacombs where we're redefining what it means to have a huge, underground maze full of decomposing human heads.

Catacombs as a Service is really going to take off.
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