Composting Human Bodies now legal?

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Comments

  • Grammyprepper
    Grammyprepper Posts: 168 ✭✭✭

    I have previously made my concerns known about how 'toxic' human bodies are these days. After reading further comments, I have to wonder if our current methods of burial aren't just as toxic if not more so. As decomposition takes time, regardless if one is in a casket or buried just as a body, decomposition will happen. How did our forebears deal with this? They primarily buried their dead, regardless of cause of death. They didn't have as much knowledge of disease, although they had some. But they also didn't have all of the medical advances we have today, or the diseases chronic and otherwise. So the things we need to be looking at are chronic diseases and the medications used to treat them, as well as implanted medical devices, from pacemakers to artificial joints, dental implants, 'boob jobs', and so on. I don't think there is an easy answer.

  • Lee Meents
    Lee Meents Posts: 5

    You will not see a better done Video on the subject than this 'Let talk human composting [Katrina Spade] TEDxOreasisland] .I have checked into this idea and amy ready , only it's not legal in Nebraska. If It becomes legal I will.What better gift to the earth than your body. Why Not.

    =

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin

    This all makes me think of the folks who illegally went hot potting (I think it is called), and unfortunately slipped into the wrong pool of acidic water at Yellowstone. They dissolved extremely fast. Nothing was left to recover. This is natural almost instantaneous decomposition (obviously), and most likely would take care of everything.

  • ines871
    ines871 Posts: 1,283 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited May 2019

    5-18-19 https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/washington-state-braces-for-eco-friendly-human-composting/ar-AABzXSk Gov. Jay Inslee, a democrat focusing his presidential campaign on climate change, is expected to sign the bill Tuesday, in order to cut carbon emissions from burials and cremations. - So far so good. - The measure, which passed with bipartisan support, also permits a process called alkaline hydrolysis, already legal in some states, in which bodies are broken down in water and lye. iow, the lye is not necessary. This comes at the same time as the 5G Forced deployment on humanity aimed at extinction.

    So those of us who are of poisons (aka pharmaceuticals) free, the soil will gain more minerals...

  • Jimerson
    Jimerson Posts: 291 admin

    I read that article and in the comments saw someone post about a "mushroom suit" for home burial. Oh let me see if I can find the link..



    Looks like they have options for pets, too. I bet it's expensive though.

    🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄

  • egaa1959
    egaa1959 Posts: 6 ✭✭✭

    Theirs lots of cons and pros to this subject.

    My first thought when I read about this a long while ago was.......

    For over 40 years now ...I've always wanted to be buried in my back yard. I'd be great fertiliser.

    Now..I may be able to... Watch those daisies grow ;-)

  • karen
    karen Posts: 80 ✭✭

    an update. since posting, two of my cats have died. They are both buried in the ornamental garden with bushes on top. just a different way of composting. at neither time did i have a hot compost going. sigh. i really wanted to do it!

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin

    @karen That is beautiful. I hope to grow a cottonwood tree one day...if it is allowed.

    Our best dog is "guarding" our place out by the end of the lane by a large spruce tree. It was/is a suitable place for her.

  • frogvalley
    frogvalley Posts: 675 ✭✭✭✭
    edited July 2020

    Green funerals are.....well....what we used to do before we were sold a particular way of thinking about how we send off our dearly departed. We bought into the new fangled funerals with all the chemicals, costs and public displays of mourning. It's much like trans fats that came into our homes to do x, y and z (fill in the variable with whatever would motivate you to shell out $ for their product) for us. We came to believe it was a better way of life. Well, we've come a long way baby. We've seen the memos, done the research and suffered the diseases that have finally woken us up about trans fats, pharmaceuticals and oh so many other profit making schemes at the expense of humanity/earth.

    Could it be that the bacteria in the earth will re-adjust to compensate for a green buried body just as it does in the intestines? Those who consume various herbs that help one re-adjust bad bacteria populations in lieu of pharmaceutical antibiotics are familiar with the concept. Some of us believe that what happens at the micro level mirrors what happens at the macro level.

    We should allow ourselves to create and accept our own meaningful rituals and traditions without guilt, pushing our beliefs on others, harming earth or it's inhabitants. It boggles the mind that embalming is accepted/allowed/embraced as a matter of course while being able to R.I.P (Rot In Place) without the aid of accouterments is considered heresy.

    This doesn't address what happens to the many things we put in our bodies like radiation, chemotherapy, implants, etc, but may trigger us to consider alternatives if we desire a green funeral as an endpoint.

  • charr80
    charr80 Posts: 15

    This is how I want to be buried. Just place me in a burlap sack or wooden casket. I don't want all the toxic fluids or artificial casket. I looked into this in Alabama. You have to get a part of your land deemed as a cemetery before burying your dead there. If you do this it will be hard to sell the land. Just some items to consider.

  • tuliv4
    tuliv4 Posts: 17 ✭✭✭

    Here’s a link to an NPR piece on composting “loved ones” in Washington state

    California has also proposed a bill following in Washington’s footsteps.

    Heres a link to a site that has more info on this topic. It also has info on capsula mundi- the egg shaped burial pod that was mentioned in one of the posts that provide nutrients for a tree.


    It sure is a changing world. What is the new normal? How do you envision the future?

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin

    @tuliv4 This certainly appeals to me. I would hope this option comes to my area of Canada at some point if we can no longer do a basic burial as I understand is allowed here, just not widely known. I like the idea of a party & giving new life in death.

  • herbantherapy
    herbantherapy Posts: 453 ✭✭✭✭

    @cre8tiv369 THANK YOU!

    I live in Oregon and we have green burials here. There is a whole gamut of what green means and what each cemetery will accept or choose to handle. We are also considering a compost bill. The composting is done at a facility that is certified to handle bodies and like other compost facilities they compost HOT & FAST.

    This is not a slow cold compost in your backyard!!

  • mgray11
    mgray11 Posts: 83 ✭✭✭

    Very interesting thread! I found myself laughing at comments from a year ago (Breaking Bad references, etc). I live in WA - moved back last July- so it's kind of "local" news.

  • Nancy A.Maurelli
    Nancy A.Maurelli Posts: 44 ✭✭✭

    Odd that I got so many chuckles from this topic. THANKS, everyone!

  • Jannajo
    Jannajo Posts: 173 ✭✭✭

    I tell u, this forum is very detailed and 'exacto'.... for myself,there is ONLY one thing that happens to my body (any other means a sign of disrespect, as for a criminal), it returns to the earth (as Jesus-Name of God on earth- says in Genesis) & experience has shown me (at 77), that decomposition takes place within less than ten years -the cemetery told me this: In your family plot, with perhaps 30 bodies, these r now stacked one on top of another -for the first ones r already decomposed, and the coffin also, making room for many more bodies. One plot, then, for many centuries-even more, if land remains as usual.....also, for myself, this world being now near His Appearance, I await Jesus to take me (& His Bride),into the sky, into His Arm, to be forever with Him; hence, no burial, hahaha!

  • HearthForYou
    HearthForYou Posts: 52 ✭✭✭
    edited July 2020

    @H_D @LaurieLovesLearning I'm with you on the mycelium idea. It seems that if we all got cleaned up with mycelium, the toxins would be transmuted and the soil fed.

    The idea of gathering human bodies to compost together creeps me out. I wonder why this is being considered.

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin

    @HearthForYou Composting is naturally what is done when a body would be fully naturally buried. This "new" method just speeds it up...and makes someone money.

    I don't think the articles mentioned bodies being gathered together for the process, but only one at a time...or did I miss something?

    The only part that got to me is when I read that it would get turned in the barrel, I imagined a thunk, thunk. 😬 I can't imagine that it would be quiet at the start, but what do I know?

  • Cornelius
    Cornelius Posts: 872 ✭✭✭✭

    I personally find this idea disturbing and believe that the dead could be treated with a little more dignity. Also the reason that most people are pumped full of a preserving agent after they kick off is that if they are still alive that will kill them (anyone terrified of being buried alive, this process prevents that) and also preserving the body to allow for more time for a funeral.

  • Marjory Wildcraft
    Marjory Wildcraft Posts: 1,615 admin

    @Cornelius you made me laugh out load with this "the reason most people are pumped full of a preservative agent after they have kicked off is that if they are still alive that will kill them".

  • mgray11
    mgray11 Posts: 83 ✭✭✭

    Thunk thunk thunk. Move over "Telltale Heart" & make way for the "Telltale Compost Bin"!

  • herbantherapy
    herbantherapy Posts: 453 ✭✭✭✭

    @Jannajo as for using one plot for one family for centuries, even with caskets...please check your cemetery policies. The cemetery I manage requires caskets to be buried in a cement liner or vault which does not compost down for centuries if ever completely. We have underground streams and sandy soil. Without the liner; the integrity of the land would sink and heave leaving it impossible to mow or walk about without getting a twisted ankle....believe me it’s plenty uneven anyways!

  • fivelawrences
    fivelawrences Posts: 33 ✭✭✭

    Alkaline hydrolysis sounds great, but how hard is it to find a place that does that? I live in the south and it feels like we don't typically have the best options when it comes to "green" anything! Hopefully the process becomes more widespread so that more people can hear about it an understand the process.

  • tomandcara
    tomandcara Posts: 712 ✭✭✭✭

    @cre8tiv369 Thank you for the information about alkaline hydrolysis, Your posting was very informative. Do you have suggestions on how a person can find a facility in their area, where ever that might be, that would offer these services?

  • valizona
    valizona Posts: 48 ✭✭✭

    I heard years ago from funeral home worker-friend that less formaldehyde is needed to preserve bodies because theyre already so full of preservatives

    Also, my neighbor told me how she officially became a member of an online church for the purpose of enabling her to be legally buried in a pine box in her back yard. {We're in the US}

    Burial regulations are a necessary thing especially now that burying is its own business and regular folks arent doing it like we see in old western films. One can appreciate it especially considering things like floodplains and run-off. New Orleans was inundated with floating caskets after Katrina partly due to the shallowness of them being buried.

    Ideally, I'm picturing an ecological company providing dignified proper burial (manner, depth and location) perhaps seeding plot with expertly configured mycobiological action. It could be a thing?

  • tomandcara
    tomandcara Posts: 712 ✭✭✭✭

    @valizona I live in Aurora Colorado and several years ago there was an article in the paper saying it was legal to bury a person on your own property. The sad, or funny thing was that it was clearly illegal to bury an animal or pet in your own property.

  • Marjory Wildcraft
    Marjory Wildcraft Posts: 1,615 admin

    @valizona it totally made me laugh at your comment that less formaldehyde is needed because people are already so full of preservatives. LOL. Gosh, how do we even live at all? I wonder...

  • Jannajo
    Jannajo Posts: 173 ✭✭✭

    @herbantherapy As for the cemetery here in Montreal, the policy is as stated, the plot can be used for generations as there is decomposition taking place, at quite a rate, it seems. I am going to Heaven with Jesus, no burial at all, called The Rapture, so I live!