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Don't bury or cremate – soon you may compost your corpse

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Re: Don't bury or cremate – soon you may compost your corpse

#31

Post by Mvhsz »

ryanmercer wrote: post #19

In some places you can go for a 'natural' burial where you are minimally processed and simply placed in the ground in basically a natural material burial shroud. In a lot of places, however, this is highly illegal and there are minimum requirements for burial (which can include embalming and/or a casket and/or a concrete and/or a burial vault which is basically a concrete sarcophagus that caskets go in). Here in Indi…

Laws requiring embalming/caskets are pretty uncommon. There aren't any laws at the US Federal level, and only a handful of states have any restrictions. Finding a funeral director to provide a natural burial can be more difficult, although most large cities have at least one option.

Re: Don't bury or cremate – soon you may compost your corpse

#32

Post by cftorres »

tr33house wrote: post #2

While composting has a lot of benefits, I would be very sad to attend a friend's burial if they were to be composted. Feels like a disrespectful way to let someone go. I'm also concerned about disease transmission. Cows' diseases may not necessarily affect us but humans' certainly will. The need to disinfect kinda defeats the purpose (pollution with chemicals) Hope about we just compost other things and let human bod…

Feeling attached to that kind of judgements is part of culture. Luckily culture changes trough time, this news opens the possibility that in some years this alternative could be as respectful as sustainable.

Re: Don't bury or cremate – soon you may compost your corpse

#33

Post by whatshisface »

apo wrote: post #30

Given the dwindling space for burials: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bisnow/2017/11/03/urban-cemeter... and the energy/greenhouse gas emission costs of cremation, I can see this taking off. There's a picture and caption not discussed in the text: > Katrina Spade, upper left, the founder and CEO of Recompose, a company that hopes to use composting as an alternative to burying or cremating human remains, looks on Tuesda…

The dwindling space for burials... In the middle of urban areas.

Re: Don't bury or cremate – soon you may compost your corpse

#34

Post by whatshisface »

People are long-lived apex predators, wouldn't this have a heavy metal problem? Tuna and other apex predators tend to be dangerous to eat due to the buildup of pollutants inside them, and they don't live nearly as long or eat nearly as much as a human.

Re: Don't bury or cremate – soon you may compost your corpse

#36

Post by nashashmi »

cftorres wrote: post #32
tr33house wrote: post #2

While composting has a lot of benefits, I would be very sad to attend a friend's burial if they were to be composted. Feels like a disrespectful way to let someone go. I'm also concerned about disease transmission. Cows' diseases may not necessarily affect us but humans' certainly will. The need to disinfect kinda defeats the purpose (pollution with chemicals) Hope about we just compost other things and let human bod…

Feeling attached to that kind of judgements is part of culture. Luckily culture changes trough time, this news opens the possibility that in some years this alternative could be as respectful as sustainable.

Cultures don't change. New cultures form. Old cultures die.

The judgement is attached to the significance of the person. The right casket, right dress, right ceremony. But ritual comes from religion.

A new religion around sustainable life will adopt this method. The others who adopt will be the fringe individuals.

Re: Don't bury or cremate – soon you may compost your corpse

#37

Post by [deleted] »

tr33house wrote: post #2

While composting has a lot of benefits, I would be very sad to attend a friend's burial if they were to be composted. Feels like a disrespectful way to let someone go. I'm also concerned about disease transmission. Cows' diseases may not necessarily affect us but humans' certainly will. The need to disinfect kinda defeats the purpose (pollution with chemicals) Hope about we just compost other things and let human bod…

[deleted]

Re: Don't bury or cremate – soon you may compost your corpse

#38

Post by josefx »

tremon wrote: post #12
summm wrote: post #3

This has been done over centuries, and is still standard in Europe, where the embalming fad never has caught on.

Natural burial is completely different to composting. Have you read the article? When someone dies, their body is taken to a human composting facility [..] After wrapping the deceased in a simple shroud, friends and family carry the body to the top of the core which contains the natural decomposition system [..] It would be done in a contained vessel which [..] would be rotated to provide physical disruption so oxyge…

Active composting isn't. However most graves seem to already be efficient enough at it that you can bury a new corpse in one every few years without being blocked by the remains of the previous inhabitant.

Re: Don't bury or cremate – soon you may compost your corpse

#39

Post by thinkingkong »

NeedMoreTea wrote: post #18
ggm wrote: post #11

The introduction of cremation and the establishment of the first necropolis' in Paris (I think) and London was a huge social advance. Being able to talk openly and frankly about modes of interment, the recognition of a growing class of atheists, deists but not christians, a migrant population created many new states. London had a special railway line to the cemetary, and you got black-lined ticket to ride the coffin-…

Thankfully there's a good choice of natural and forest burials in the UK now. Surprisingly it can be the cheaper option. Actual composting is but a small step from there... Burial at sea used to be another natural option. A body sewed into sail canvas, weighted with rocks (or cannon balls), which continued beyond WW2. Now it's a whole damn full size coffin, and regulations for the minimum amount of weight bolted to i…

The body being sewn into canvas for the burial at sea was related to the people having canvas hammocks. You were buried in your hammock after they sewed it up - the last stitch went through your nose.
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