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Oregon has legalized human composting

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Re: Oregon has legalized human composting

#131

Post by lph »

My mother passed away a few weeks ago. It was her wish to go with Recompose. She was a master gardener, and to her, the idea of returning to the ecosystem was so much better than cremation or a cemetery. Through Recompose, her 'soil' will be donated to a reforesting project.

As you can imagine, I've ruminated a lot on this lately. What's the purpose of a tombstone, or a plaque, or an urn full of ashes? To memorialize, or to honor someone who is gone? I don't need a monument for that. I spent a couple of hours yesterday propagating roses with my six-year old daughter, her grand-daughter. That's a better way to honor my mother, I think, and she would agree.

As old-world tradition and religiosity fade, we can all find our own new ways to do these things. This is 'meaning-making', an interesting term I learned recently.

Incidentally, her gardening buddies were intrigued to learn about human composting. I think Recompose is going to be big.

Re: Oregon has legalized human composting

#132

Post by jodrellblank »

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.

Alcor will do this for $80,000/head, are your prices competitive?

Re: Oregon has legalized human composting

#134

Post by at_a_remove »

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

I believe that there was someone in the Mafia whose procedure was not unlike the modern lye hydrolysis methods -- heat, pressure, and a basic solution. Rendering took only hours, supposedly, an efficient method of Llupara bianca.

Re: Oregon has legalized human composting

#135

Post by kibwen »

cogman10 wrote: post #52
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.

Human remains can be somewhat toxic (particularly to humans). Human remains are a breeding ground for disease that specializes in breaking down humans. Now imagine that diseased juice getting into the local water system.

It's a myth that human remains are toxic. A human body is only as toxic as the living human that it once was. Which is to say, avoid getting blood and feces on your mucous membranes and you're not at any elevated risk.

With regard to drinking water, here's what the CDC advises with regard to whether people should be concerned with a natural abundance of un-preserved corpses in the wake of a natural disaster:

"Bacteria and viruses from human remains in flood water are a minor part of the overall contamination that can include uncontrolled sewerage, a variety of soil and water organisms, and household and industrial chemicals. There are no additional practices or precautions for flood water related to human remains, beyond what is normally required for safe food and drinking water, standard hygiene and first aid."

https://www.cdc.gov/disasters/handleremains.html

In general their broader advice is that you don't need to worry about any sort of disease outbreak happening if there are un-preserved corpses lying around (a position with which the WHO concurs).

We should be more concerned with formaldehyde leaching out of preserved corpses than from any chemical byproduct of human decomposition.

Re: Oregon has legalized human composting

#136

Post by dalbasal »

okareaman wrote: post #124

Hallucinogenic mushrooms are legal to grow in Oregon so I'd like have some grown on my composted body and parcel them out for a ceremony of my life

That's a lot of pressure on whoever's propogating them. Better to spread the compost somewhere they already grow (like Oregon) and collect seasonally.

Re: Oregon has legalized human composting

#137

Post by livueta »

mc32 wrote: post #128
kibwen wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Parts of the body will decompose at different rates, so it won't be long before parts of the body will detach from the part that is weighted down. 7,000 people in the US die every day, 2.6 million a year. Random body parts from millions upon millions of corpses quickly find their way onto beaches everywhere, to the delight of sunbathers.

Was that reported around Leyte gulf and areas where thousands perished at sea? It may be a concern, but I’m not sure.

It's definitely a thing even without combat areas: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salish_Sea_human_foot_discov...

So if you scale up from the relatively small numbers of people who die (and whose bodies aren't recovered) by accident or suicide near/in water, it's probably reasonable to expect a lot more of this. Maybe your idea is workable if you go far enough out that any detached remnants are grabbed by the big oceanic gyres.

Re: Oregon has legalized human composting

#138

Post by kibwen »

mc32 wrote: post #128
kibwen wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Parts of the body will decompose at different rates, so it won't be long before parts of the body will detach from the part that is weighted down. 7,000 people in the US die every day, 2.6 million a year. Random body parts from millions upon millions of corpses quickly find their way onto beaches everywhere, to the delight of sunbathers.

Was that reported around Leyte gulf and areas where thousands perished at sea? It may be a concern, but I’m not sure.

I don't know about the WWII case, but in countries like the UK where it is legal to be buried at sea there are regulations about where you can perform the ceremony specifically because bodies do drift: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-guernsey-24224570

Although the article mentions that this is the first time it's happened in 25 years, note that only about a dozen people every year choose to be buried in this way: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-38210497

Re: Oregon has legalized human composting

#139

Post by clajiness »

mc32 wrote: post #117
ssully wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who lives in the middle of the United States, shipping my body out to the closest ocean for burial and flying family out to witness my burial doesn't seem very practical.

We have inland seas. The Great Lakes are vast and they can be barged out to sea (we’d need agreements with Canada; but feasible) It may not be cost effective for some... but a large percentage (~60%) of the US pop live within a 100 miles from seashores...

Lake Superior is perpetually cold and near-sterile when you get deep enough. Not the greatest place if you want bodies to decompose.

Re: Oregon has legalized human composting

#140

Post by rags2riches »

cwkoss wrote: post #116
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

Wow, the whole process only takes several weeks?

A simple backyard compost will go through chicken bones quite well once it gets going. I'm not surprised an optimized process can take care of a whole body in a matter of weeks.
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