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Oregon has legalized human composting

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Re: Oregon has legalized human composting

#141

Post by hutzlibu »

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.

"Human remains are a breeding ground for disease that specializes in breaking down humans"

They are not diseases, but common microorganism - and they are specialized into breaking down any dead organic material.

You don't want them in the drinking water, though. But you don't want any microorganism in the drinking water.

Re: Oregon has legalized human composting

#142

Post by nsm »

01100011 wrote: post #56
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…

Or a big friggin fresnel lens.

In Iain M. Banks' Culture series, customarily, a ship Mind displaces (teleports) your body to the center of the nearest star on death. That way your atoms contribute to the star and will eventually rise to the surface and spread through the universe. Also takes care of prion diseases.

Re: Oregon has legalized human composting

#143

Post by xwdv »

If a plant such as a tree is grown from your remains don’t you basically “become” the tree?

I’ve always thought it would be great if one could become some kind of long lasting tree that could last generations and could be visited upon by ancestors, but I don’t know how practical such graveyard forests would be.

Re: Oregon has legalized human composting

#144

Post by okareaman »

dalbasal wrote: post #136
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.

I'm sure Shamans will become a thing now that they are legal and offer a ceremony like this.

Re: Oregon has legalized human composting

#145

Post by pvaldes »

mc32 wrote: post #106
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 mean, why do all this theater when there is a much better long lived and respected tradition: Burial-at-Sea. Roughly 60% of the US pop lives within a 100 miles of a seacoast. Wrap them in something organic for presentation, a weight stone, then, go out to sea (with family along option -others may be ok with remote video) and let them slip into the ocean like sailors buried at sea. No creepiness, no vicarious cannib…

Well... Would be more like crepiness on steroids, "final dungeon boss level".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owKFlNU_T5w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7t1WguYJyE

Re: Oregon has legalized human composting

#146

Post by rjbwork »

dang wrote: post #55
Y_Y wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That beautiful circle of life is why I'm so keen on eating Mongolian vulture meat.

Please don't do this here.

Hey dang, I don't actually understand what the above poster did wrong or why they were downvoted so heavily or why you felt the need to personally reprimand them.

Not saying you or anyone else is wrong for doing so, but I feel like something must be going over my head. Can you enlighten me?

Re: Oregon has legalized human composting

#147

Post by mrkurt »

lph wrote: post #131

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…

I'm sorry for your loss. I got a lot out of reading this comment and I appreciate that you shared it.

Re: Oregon has legalized human composting

#148

Post by mrkurt »

conductr wrote: post #108
tantalor wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This earlier article is less ambiguous, > Over the next 30 days, naturally-occurring microbes—and a few turnings with a tool similar to a dough hook—break the body down. https://www.vice.com/en/article/93wmd5/the-first-us-funeral-...

That's pretty interesting. Does leave me with a different opinion on the service. Not sure if good/bad, just different. Edit: after a few minutes of thought, I definitely like this less. Imagining my body like a pair of shoes banging around in the dryer or torn to shreds is not a great thought. In a way it's irrational. I don't think of cremation as my body in an inferno even thought that's what it is. I've always li…

It sure ruins the illusion of "being at peace". Laying there and just slowly fading away? Peaceful. Getting stirred up so you break down faster? Ick.

I'll probably get over it but I had a similar visceral reaction.

Re: Oregon has legalized human composting

#149

Post by quesera »

prepend wrote: post #75
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.

Yes, that is not great marketing copy.

But I suspect that if people knew what "embalming" means, they'd be squeamish about that as well.

...

I was present for a cremation sale where the funeral director explained that they fire the body, then collect any metals (titanium screws etc) and sell them for scrap.

This bothered me, but I can't say (still to this day) whether it was because it seemed way too graphic for the average bereaved family member, or if I was just offended that the crematorium thought it was OK to sell other peoples' property.

Re: Oregon has legalized human composting

#150

Post by mirkules »

meristohm wrote: post #99
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

For anyone disturbed by the thought of a body being turned with a hook, consider who that person is since they died. My perspective is that they’re a memory in whoever remembers. They have lasting impacts to varying degrees. Now they are a collection of elements, much of which supports many other living things. I care that the body is processed in a way towards most ecological reciprocity, whatever that may be for th…

Your phrasing is very interesting: "consider who that person is since they died." It's interesting because you refer to the dead person in the present tense, "who it is," not "who it was". Yet, in the following sentence you say "they are a collection of elements." Even when attempting to state "cold hard facts," we cannot help but exhibit our humanity, and it's a reminder why we should treat the dead with respect. In my opinion, being alive is more than just a collection of atoms and the interactions between them. And in death, while the electrons stop moving in that particular way that made us alive, that "something special" still remains in the form of their memory.
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