Ars Technica:
This week, Washington Governor Jay Inslee signed a bill to allow the composting of human remains within the state. It is the only state in the US—and possibly the only government in the world—to explicitly allow “natural organic reduction” of human remains.
Katrina Spade, the founder of Recompose, told the Times that the process will cost about $5,000 — more than a traditional cremation, but less than a traditional burial. “The material we give back to families is much like the topsoil you’d buy at your local nursery,” Recompose says on its website.
A lot of people will have an initial (understandable) negative reaction to this story but, unless you have religious reasons for not wanting to do it, would you have a problem with being composted after you die? Personally, I’d be fine with it as long as someone can sneak my compost on to the grounds of the Halifax Public Gardens and use it there.
This is intriguing.
Despite my Lutheran upbringing, I’ve never totally bought into the conventional/traditional practice of burial—especially with the inflated costs of funeral service, embalming, casket, vault, cemetery plot, headstone, etc.
I’ve often wondered if anyone oversees grave plots, their respective ages, and whether there remain alive any family who care about them/for them; and all that against the potential real estate value of the land. Are any graveyards/cemeteries recycled into other uses?
Recompose has an informative website at: https://www.recompose.life
I’m going to go with a caustic solution dissolving me and being flushed into the Pacific instead. It’s my only chance of making it into the USC medical school.
Sign me up.
Last I checked, the only land anyone in my immediate family actually owns is cemetery plots. This makes lots more sense.
Nothing wrong with this.
My wishes are to grab whatever bits and pieces can be reused, be they organs, retinas, et cetera and, as far as I’m concerned, the leftovers can be tossed into our municipal compost system or simply sent through a garburator. Neither disposal option will happen of course, but at that point, I won’t need these atoms. I don’t mind being some sort of fertilizer when I’m gone.