Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Friday January 04 2019, @04:41AM   Printer-friendly
from the circle-of-life dept.

With an upcoming bill, Washington state might be able to start composting dead people. The bill aims to legalize composting human remains and the heat generated by natural microbes should bring the pile up to 55°C for 72 hours, which is hot enough to kill key pathogens.

The method is called “recomposting” and claims to be cheaper and more environmentally friendly than traditional burial or cremation. It involves rapidly decomposing a body and converting the remains into soil. That nutrient-rich material can then be used to grow trees, flowers, and other new life.

The alternative practice hinges on a bill that state senator Jamie Pedersen plans to introduce next month, according to NBC. It would legalize recomposting in Washington where burial and cremation are currently the only acceptable ways to dispose of human remains.

Composting was prominent in the Larry Niven / Jerry Pournelle science fiction novel, Footfall. However, the discussion in Washington was initiated by Katrina Spade in 2013 while working on her master’s in architecture at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 04 2019, @01:35PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 04 2019, @01:35PM (#782019)

    I read it, like, 30 or more years ago, but all I remember about composting in that story is that the reporter was killed and mixed into the compost pile, but the composting was only in that one scene, and the pile had nothing to do with human remains, and took up a couple pages out of 300 or so.