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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.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 04 2019, @09:22PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 04 2019, @09:22PM (#782240)

    So use human-compost to plant trees or non-edible plants, just like with most other waste products that can carry infectious material...

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 05 2019, @11:28AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 05 2019, @11:28AM (#782472)

    How many humans will strictly follow warning like "do not use for edible plants" ?
    Also, pets do eat lawn grass and earthworms.

    Another consideration is, dead human body tends to be filled with medicines and other chemicals that survive composting and should not be released into the environment.