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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: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Friday January 04 2019, @11:57PM (1 child)

    by PinkyGigglebrain (4458) on Friday January 04 2019, @11:57PM (#782313)

    Anthrax manages to do it. Bury a sheep killed by Anthrax and a few years later the Anthrax spores have worked their way back up to the surface ready to start the cycle anew thanks to Earth worms and various other denizens of the soil.

    If a Prion can survive an autoclave at 121C then there isn't really much in the soil that could threaten it.

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  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday January 05 2019, @04:23AM

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Saturday January 05 2019, @04:23AM (#782396)

    Anthrax is an evolved organism, prions are little more than chemicals - a chiral reversal of common proteins. Self replicating in a simpler way than viruses, dangerous like a slow fire, but not something with a lot of refinement and a multi-stage lifecycle like anthrax.

    They definitely deserve due care, but a big part of how they're a problem today is feeding the entire CNS of infected livestock to other livestock. Digestive juices deactivate most of them, but not all...

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