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Washington state first to allow composting of dead bodies

Menelaus

Menelaus

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
3,682
What do you think, would you prefer this over burial or cremation?

https://www.kbtx.com/content/news/510227412.html

Gov. Jay Inslee signed legislation Tuesday making Washington the first state to approve composting as an alternative to burying or cremating human remains.
It allows licensed facilities to offer "natural organic reduction," which turns a body, mixed with substances such as wood chips and straw, into about two wheelbarrows' worth of soil in a span of several weeks.

Loved ones are allowed to keep the soil to spread the same way they might spread the ashes of someone who has been cremated.
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/turns composter 4 times
/tries not to cry with each heavy *thunk*
 
Kinketsu

Kinketsu

Member
Nov 17, 2017
1,975
image
 
hordak

hordak

Member
Oct 31, 2017
2,532
Anaheim, CA
yeah we should definitely recycle bodies. we are all part of the universe so we should be reconstituted as grass or trees or flowers. Just not avocados cause they suck :P
 
GSG

GSG

Member
Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,051
I'd love for my remains to help grow a tree, seems like a much better use for my body than how humans are currently buried.
 
Dest

Dest

Has seen more 10s than EA ever will
Coward
Jun 4, 2018
14,038
Work
It's kind of a weird thing to think about, but I'm behind it. I'm dead, I can be useful still and that's dope.
 
Cilidra

Cilidra

A friend is worth more than a million Venezuelan$
Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,489
Ottawa
Not that great idea for health reason IF the compost is used afterward in farm or gardens. This greatly increase the risk of certain type of parasitic diseases. If it's used in forested area then not a big deal.

I compost plants material myself and I would not use compost made of animal parts unless it's heated to high enough temperature to kill pathogens.
 
Acorn

Acorn

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,972
Scotland
Good for those that want it, though it won't do much good in the grand scheme of things because most people will never do it. Not a bad thing ofcourse, I just hope if we have it here it's kept a long long way away from anywhere I'll ever visit. Nightmare fuel.

Have they legislated on what the soil can be used for? Scientifically it makes no difference(as far as I know) if it's used for produce but...yeah.
 
Dest

Dest

Has seen more 10s than EA ever will
Coward
Jun 4, 2018
14,038
Work
Acorn said:
Have they legislated on what the soil can be used for? Scientifically it makes no difference(as far as I know) if it's used for produce but...yeah.
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Grown from the healthy, hearty left nut.
Man that'd be something to put on your apples, eh?
 
Trevelyan

Trevelyan

User requested permanent ban
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Oct 27, 2017
1,196
I like to think I'm pretty damn healthy, so I'm sure my remains could probably fertilize one of those 800 pound pumpkins. That would be swell.
 
Duane

Duane

Unshakable Resolve
The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
6,433
Eh... typically you don't compost meat. You don't even use manure from non-herbivores. Otherwise you wind up with oily, bacteria filled compost.
 
Hollywood Duo

Hollywood Duo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
41,792
Is there any scientific proof this is good for the soil? Usually dead animals are picked clean by scavengers/carrion.
 
HeavenlyOne

HeavenlyOne

The Fallen
Nov 30, 2017
2,350
Your heart
I'm pretty set on having my body placed in the walls of a house, to be discovered in the future by some unfortunate renovators, but this is okay too.
 
Blue Lou

Blue Lou

Member
Oct 26, 2017
1,476
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.
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-48359571


A company "places a body in a hexagonal steel container filled with alfalfa, wood chips and straw.

The container is then shut, and the body decomposes naturally within 30 days, creating two wheelbarrows' worth of soil."

I remember reading Mary Roach's Stiff and she was writing about how this type of company had problems because lobbyists. There was a company in the book who wanted to break down bodies with a type of acid and flush them away.
 
Slayven

Slayven

Never read a comic in his life
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Oct 25, 2017
93,031
I mean as long as it is done by licensed and regulated companies and not people chucking grandma in the backyard with some orange peels and people aren't trying to sale food grown in the product
 
Dyno

Dyno

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
13,256
Slayven said:
I mean as long as it is done by licensed and regulated companies and not people chucking grandma in the backyard with some orange peels and people aren't trying to sale food grown in the product
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This is so definitely going to happen at some point one way or another
 
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