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posted by CoolHand on Tuesday April 14 2015, @06:55AM   Printer-friendly
from the ashes-to-ashes-dust-to-dust dept.

Even as more people opt for interment in simple shrouds or biodegradable caskets, urban cemeteries continue to fill up and cremation is a problematic option for the environmentally conscious, as the process releases greenhouse gases. Now Catrin Einhorn reports at the NYT that architect Katrina Spade has designed a facility for human composting that is attracting interest from environmental advocates and scientists. “Composting makes people think of banana peels and coffee grounds,” says Spade. But “our bodies have nutrients. What if we could grow new life after we’ve died?” The Urban Death Project's plans call for a three-story-high polished concrete composting structure in Seattle called "the core," which would be surrounded by contemplative spaces for visitors. After a ceremony - religious or not - friends and family would help insert the body into the core. Over several weeks a body would turn into about one cubic yard of compost, enough to plant a tree or a patch of flowers.

For most people in the US, there are two options after death: You are buried or you are burned. The costs, both environmental and financial, are significant, but we accept these options because they are all that we know. Conventional burial is anything but natural. Cadavers are preserved with embalming fluid containing formaldehyde, a carcinogen then buried in caskets made of metal or wood, and placed inside a concrete or metal burial vault. The tradition of embalming in the United States is relatively new, beginning in the Civil War when northern families needed to get their dead men home from the South. Spade understands the idea of human composting may be icky to some, but it’s an important part of her concept, the thing that differentiates it from natural burial, which requires extensive land. "I’m sure I’ll continue to get pushback, but I’ll continue to be stubborn because I think it’s really important that we’re part of a larger ecosystem.”

 
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  • (Score: 2) by linuxrocks123 on Tuesday April 14 2015, @06:45PM

    by linuxrocks123 (2557) on Tuesday April 14 2015, @06:45PM (#170489) Journal

    your family's beliefs will overrule any beliefs you may have once had, because, again, you're dead and they're not.

    What the frack? Do you actually believe this? "You're dead, so no one cares what you want" you're aware we have WILLS, right? You get to decide what happens to your property after you die, but you think you don't get decide what happens to your own body???

    Fortunately, you're dead (ha ha) wrong on this. If you leave detailed written instructions, they have to be followed. Someone would have to raise the dispute, but a single person on your side -- or even just the mortuary itself -- could petition the court, submit the instructions you left, and take possession of the remains to execute your wishes.

    You can also appoint an agent -- friend or family, just whoever you trust most -- to control the disposition of your remains, and this appointment is binding: http://fcant.org/pdf/texasforms/appoint_agent_control_disposition_remains_v20101009.pdf [fcant.org]

    I really wish people would actually look up what the law actually is regarding relevant topics, rather than just assume. It's usually not that hard to look things like this up, and it avoids spreading misinformation.

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