Washington becomes first US state to legalise human composting
Washington has become the first state in the US to legalise human composting.
Under the new law, people there can now choose to have their body turned into soil after their death.
The process is seen as an alternative to cremations and burials, and as a practical option in cities where land for graveyards is scarce.
At the end of the composting, loved ones are given the soil, which they can use in planting flowers, vegetables or trees.
Grow vegetables using human compost from loved one, despair as pests eat all of it.
Previously: 'Urban Death Project' Proposes to Compost the Dead
Washington Could Become the First State to Compost the Dead
Related Stories
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.”
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.
In 2021, a Seattle Washington funeral company is set to open its doors and begin accepting customers in a first of a kind human composting site.
US 'deathcare' company Recompose will be able to turn the deceased into a cubic yard of soil over a period of as little as 30 days, using one-eighth of the energy of cremation and saving as much as a metric ton of carbon dioxide from being produced compared to other forms of burial.
The company will be able to service up to 75 individuals at once.
the process sees bodies placed in reusable vessels covered in woodchips, alfalfa and hay, and sealed away in hexagonal tubes.
There the corpse's temperature is regulated while its surroundings are aerated, allowing naturally occurring bacteria to break down the body over the course of four to seven weeks.
The deceased is then returned to their loved ones as compost, limiting the carbon footprint from cremations and traditional burials while cutting out the embalming fluid chemicals which can leach into the soil and can pollute groundwater.
If desired, the dearly departed dirt can also be donated to
a land soil project to provide a forest on the state's Bell Mountain with additional nutrients, with one person creating 2,000 to 3,000 pounds of soil.
Previous Coverage Here, Here, and Here
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 24 2019, @04:42PM
When do we get our Soylent?
Quireo un taco del hombre!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Friday May 24 2019, @04:51PM
and, of course, the final plot twist in the Green movie.
If I pre-decease my old friends and they feel inclined to gather for my funeral, I would ask that they prepare a Viking pyre for me on a small boat, with lots of alcohol to be consumed during the hour before sunset, and the boat to be ignited at dusk. However, seeing as I have never made too many good friends younger than myself, I would be content to be disposed down an in-sink garbage disposal and left to decompose in a septic tank, or the city sewage treatment plant, whichever is more convenient. If my children might derive a tiny bit of income from some other body disposal method, so much the better.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 24 2019, @05:00PM
i'm not dead yet!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 24 2019, @05:25PM (5 children)
>body decomposes naturally within 30 days
Except the bones, what’s done with those? Cremation?
Then the process is not as green as cremation alone
(Score: 4, Funny) by Rupert Pupnick on Friday May 24 2019, @05:38PM (1 child)
They can be dug up later and used for garden ornamentation.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 24 2019, @05:51PM
At Halloween, we get Grandma and Granpa out of the tool shed, and put them in the rocking chairs on the front porch.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Immerman on Friday May 24 2019, @06:17PM
Bone meal is an excellent soil additive.
And even if you cremate the bones, they're only like 20% of body mass, and far less energy intensive to cremate than the boiling off all the water in the body first so that you can burn away the dry ingredients.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 24 2019, @10:24PM (1 child)
I would turn the body into minced meat so the bones would be like sand.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 24 2019, @10:34PM
Kinda like how they make cat food...
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Friday May 24 2019, @06:26PM (16 children)
I did the Sub of the Mushroom Suit. The one that makes "Human" Composting legal ANYWHERE. They refuse to "run" it. Very politically biased!!! foxnews.com/entertainment/luke-perry-mushroom-burial-suit [foxnews.com]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday May 24 2019, @06:30PM
Question, Donny. How much compost is lying around in government buildings, in Washington?
(Score: 3, Informative) by janrinok on Friday May 24 2019, @06:52PM (13 children)
It didn't interest me, so I didn't pick it up. I cannot speak for the other editors. However, your quoted source was FoxNews, yet the story originated from https://people.com/tv/luke-perry-buried-special-eco-friendly-mushroom-suit/ [people.com], which Fox acknowledged. The submission guidelines state that the original source should be used. Fox gave you the link but you simply failed to use it. That is also true of your other submissions waiting in the queue. The editors will have to rewrite them before we can use them.
When we are looking for a story to run, we usually take the path of least resistance - just like everyone else. Good submissions are chosen before poor submissions. Submissions requiring rewriting usually come last.
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Friday May 24 2019, @07:50PM (12 children)
Bullshit. Total, total bullshit. 100%. Can we grow Mushrooms in it? Fox News has some original stories. And, some they get from other places. They always tell us where they come from. But, I've never seen an original story "on" Phys.Org. So many times, the stories with a Link to Phys.Org sail right through. The latest being, the one about China and the Rare Earths. And, Phys.Org didn't say that article came from somewhere else. But, the exact story is on many many Web sights.
Another one. And that one, I think is the last you -- Janrinok -- did from Phys.Org. Look at the one about the Elusive Molecule in Space(also known as HeH+). Submitted by Chief Editor Marty B's Sock Puppet. And he put many Links, just like you say you like. Not just to Phys.Org but to the original article. You "edited." And when that one went on the Front, or Main "Page" -- bye bye Links! You took out so many Links. And only left the ones to Phys.Org. Including some that are total bullshit and have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the story. Like a Link about animals. Unbelievable!!!
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday May 24 2019, @08:01PM (1 child)
Maybe bullshit - - - but you don't see a lot of Foxnews stories around here. The community has a resistance against Fox, and surely you realize that by now. And, I'll remind you that it isn't just the radical lefties who dislike Fox. Fox has lost any coolness value they may have ever had long ago. They aren't as bad as CNN, but damned close to it.
(Score: 2, Disagree) by realDonaldTrump on Friday May 24 2019, @08:25PM
I hear that many smart people from both sides are resisting, very strongly, Phys.Org.
Fox News, sadly is moving more and more to the losing (wrong) side in covering the Dems. After getting dumped from the boring Dem debates. They forgot the people who got them there. And they're wasting airtime on Mayor Pete, as Chris Wallace likes to call him -- incredible.
They're not always great. But, I think they're one of the best we have in this Age of Fake News. And by the way, Rupert Murdoch. People don't know this, the same guy that owns Fox News also owns News.Com.Au. The Soylent News Editors, very rarely "run" the story from Fox News. And so many dummies say, "oh, Faux News." Which is the Politically Correct way to say, Fake News. But News.Com.Au, those sail right on through. With ZERO complaints. Because, "oh, it's Foreign, we love Foreign!" They hate America. But Austria, they love. So dumb. Because it's the SAME GUY!!!!
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday May 24 2019, @09:26PM
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday May 24 2019, @09:41PM (4 children)
You plonker!
You don't seem to have realised that the original submission you are referring to is collected by a bot. That is indicated by the header which states "This is a bot sub and needs many editing". It includes lots of text and links that are irrelevant because bots cannot tell good text from bad text. It is part of our job to remove them. All internal links to phys.org are removed - they put tags on every significant word or phrase, which have nothing to do with the content. The Explore Further is not a link to another source on the same subject, but is to a completely different story.
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Friday May 24 2019, @10:28PM (3 children)
You're lieing again. Through your teeth. Because, you( Janrinok) kept the Tags. The Links to Tags. One of which has to do with Animals. And has NOTHING to do with Space Molecules. But, you erased the Links to the original article. EXACTLY as I said.
And by the way, Bytram. People don't know this. It's Martyb -- written backwards. Obvious Sock Puppet!!
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Saturday May 25 2019, @04:16AM (1 child)
If you have only just realised that, then I suspect that you are the only person that didn't know it! martyb is his SN username, and Bytram is his IRC nickname. So, not a sock puppet but 2 different usernames for 2 different places. If he submits a story via one of several bots that we maintain on IRC then his IRC nick will be used automatically.
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Monday May 27 2019, @09:15PM
Then who is Bytram on Soylent News?
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Saturday May 25 2019, @06:43AM
I'm not lying. However, I am guilty as charged on 2 earlier stories. One of the bots (Arthur the Bot) that we use is written by myself. In a recent update (from version 3 to 4) the automatic removal of local links on phys.org submissions had a bug and didn't complete the processing properly. This was not identified until after the earlier stories had been released. It was subsequently fixed and now functions as intended again (I hope!).
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday May 24 2019, @09:52PM (3 children)
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Friday May 24 2019, @11:02PM (2 children)
You looked for the Links. And, very quickly, found the Links. Great job, thank you! And, not a hard job -- because Fox, so many times they have the Link right there for us. For those of us that "open" the article on Fox News.
And the one on the Elusive Molecule, I assume the original was "on" Nature.Com. Then it went through AFP -- the French AP. And finally it came to Phys.Org. Where they added the Tags. The useless Links to Tags. Which you say "have nothing to do with the content." You're so right about that. 100% right. And you say, it's part of the Editors' "job" to erase those. But, look at the story about U.S. Navy Room-Temperature Superconductor. Not the last one you put up from Phys.Org. But, the next to last. The Peni Ultimate. From February. Another Janrinok number and it has the Tags Links in it. Not erased, those went to Front( also known as Main) "page." You say it's you're job. But, you don't do it. Too bad!
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Saturday May 25 2019, @04:18AM (1 child)
(Score: 1) by Techlectica on Monday May 27 2019, @07:51AM
He not only does not see it as necessary, but sees it as a drawback. To Fox News sycophants, news is only validated with the imprimatur of Fox News. All those other Phys.org articles could be fake news supporting quack theories like Climate Change, so why would you ever go back to that original source when only Fox News is sufficiently Truthy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 24 2019, @07:54PM
Finally something you could be good at.
(Score: 4, Touché) by SomeGuy on Friday May 24 2019, @07:42PM
Ah, so this is their solution for the lack of truly affordable health care!
(Score: 2) by snufu on Friday May 24 2019, @09:09PM
At last I no longer have to resort to the black market for all my human composting needs.
(Score: 4, Funny) by snufu on Friday May 24 2019, @09:11PM
Yes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 24 2019, @09:13PM
I guess they're Carcass [genius.com] fans...
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by VLM on Friday May 24 2019, @11:19PM (1 child)
I'd worry more about diseases like from the old pre civil engineering days.
More like "Grow veggies using the previous owners dirt-grannie, despair as your family dies of cholera"
Another fun one for snowflakes to consider, what if some extremely politically correct vegetarian (you know what I mean) gets turned into dirt thats turned into corn thats turned into cow that I eat? Turning your back yard into a cemetery has its complications.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Saturday May 25 2019, @01:50AM
I have about a dozen dead cats buried in my back yard... Each with a pretty plant rooted in the same hole along with my deceased loved one.
Its my way of remembering the joy of companionship the animal shared with me.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Saturday May 25 2019, @05:41AM
It's also legal to bury your dead relatives in your back garden in the UK (there are some formalities associated with this).
(Score: 2) by Muad'Dave on Wednesday May 29 2019, @05:45PM
What about prions? Those will certainly survive [cdc.gov] the low composting temperatures.