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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

#91

Post by logfromblammo »

My will specifies above-ground consumption by insects, followed by a clear urethane casting resin ossuary.

It also specifies cats-eye cubic zirconium retroreflectors in the eye sockets of the skull. It gives me a little thrill to imagine being discovered in a storage unit 200 years from now and creeping someone out because they saw the eyes glow from their flashlight.

Having a little trouble finding 25 mm diameter spheres of cubic zirconium, though, so I can't die yet. I can get a big chunk of it and maybe cut that down in a lathe, but I'd almost rather buy 5mm beads and make an array.

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

#93

Post by NeedMoreTea »

yardie wrote: post #76
NeedMoreTea wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Doesn’t seem that onerous. That’s 40£ of wood plank, 4 bags of cement, and some steel bands you can find at nearly any metalworks shop. I think the bigger worry is a corps that isn’t properly weighed down can turn into a very expensive police investigation. They won’t know if it’s a sea burial, drowning, or a crime.

It's not the financial load, it's the environmental / CO2 load that takes an exit with negligible impact and gives it significant impact. Ignoring any boat mileage of course, the wood may be sustainable and low impact, but neither steel or cement are when used as single use packaging. :)

Relocating a few bits of sandstone in a canvas bag is trivial by comparison. Just as well sea burials have become pretty rare these days.

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

#94

Post by gnulinux »

todd3834 wrote: post #79
ceejayoz wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even better if it's a fruit tree.

Lol I would not eat the fruit from a tree with a known dead body feeding it. Even if the science claims it’s okay it just seems weird.

How's that weird? Every fruit you've ever eaten probably has been feeding from some dead body, whether human or not.

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

#95

Post by [deleted] »

ceejayoz wrote: post #81
todd3834 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lol I would not eat the fruit from a tree with a known dead body feeding it. Even if the science claims it’s okay it just seems weird.

The atoms in the food you eat, the air your breathe, and the water you drink have been part of trillions of dead bodies.

[deleted]

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

#96

Post by gnulinux »

m23khan wrote: post #43

I thought Muslims perform their burials in style of compost. In Pakistan, The dead body is wrapped in cloth shroud and the grave is dug six feet and is lined with concrete blocks (ground is bare Earth). Coffin is not used. The body is laid in the grave then if I remember correctly, grave is covered partially (25% - 33%?) with soil and then thick concrete/stone slabs are placed on top to cover the grave. After that, t…

Really depends on sect, culture, country etc. In a lot of Muslim countries they do use coffins, like Turkey.

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

#97

Post by yazaddaruvala »

antsoul wrote: post #10
mcv wrote: post #6

I would love to know how this process compares to simple burial in a wicker basket or something like that. I always assumed that decomposition in soil, without any embalming chemicals or hardwood coffin, would be about as natural as decomposition would get. I guess the compost from this process would be of higher quality, but compared to burying your loved one in a machine where they have to decompose for a few weeks…

Decomposition would be best in the open, not buried in the soil. You need oxygen for all kind of life to eat your corpse. Sky Burial would be my favorite way to go.

I come from a culture where this is the norm. In fact they encourage vultures to eat the dead during the sky burial.

I've always liked the idea. Living in the Pacific North West, I would love to be taken to the top of a mountain and left at the top.

That said, I understand that this nice idea is not appropriate, because at scale it would ruin the mountains for the living :P

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

#98

Post by labawi »

refurb wrote: post #55
praptak wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's lead from dental fillings though.

Mercury? There is no lead in dental filings. In fact, filings are mercury free as of the last couple of decades.

In some places, yes. If you get the silver/gray stuff, it's about half mercury.

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

#100

Post by aatharuv »

In David Weber's Honor Harrington series, the original settlers of one of the planets (Grayson) found the soil was too polluted with heavy metals that they needed to create purified soil of their own for growing food. So amongst other things they buried people in their gardens, though by the time of the stories, they had transitioned away from being food gardens.
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