by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
Getting rid of dead bodies has always been a challenging pursuit. In the old days the dearly departed were rolled into a holes and covered with dirt so that wolves and big cats and other predators could not find the corpses and drag them around in pieces and chunks. At some point the bodies would decompose and become one with the earth.
Dust to dust, ashes to ashes - and all that stuff.
The Egyptians decided that there was an afterlife, and the entry into that new reality depended on having a serviceable body for the trip, so they began the processes of embalming and mummifying bodies.
Our own culture has long placed dead bodies in wooden boxes for burial, a process that would keep the wild animals at bay and offer a bit of preservation - at least for awhile. Then embalming became the fad, probably as much for health reasons as for body preservation - and before long the highly profitably funeral industry developed.
Now, in most states to properly dispose of a body the family must choose between the less expensive cremation or the far most costly embalming and burial in a special - and very expensive - coffin, and often with a concrete container to go around the coffin. Many funeral directors are skilled at selling confused and grieving families the most expensive packages that the inheritance will allow.
A few years ago "green funerals" started to make a dent in the funeral racket. These less expensive exits featured no embalming and burial in shrouds or boxes made of biodegradable materials. Bodies buried in green funerals would work their way back into the soil much, much quicker than those pumped full of poisonous embalming fluid and then encased in mahogany and concrete.
(I spoke with a Missouri funeral director several years ago and found him to be decidedly bitter on the subject of green funerals.)
Green funerals were the way of the future, but now even they are being left in the dust by a new technology.
This week Washington's governor, Jay Inslee, signed a measure that would make the composting of human bodies legal in his state. Beginning in May of 2020 families may choose to have their dearly departed placed in a special vessel which is filled with wood chips, alfalfa, and straw. The moisture controlled vessel will then be rotated for a few weeks until all matter inside decomposes into enough rich soil to fill two average wheelbarrows. Families can then take their rich new soil and place it on the garden, use it to plant a tree, put in a new flower bed, or whatever they wish.
And if they want to put a fancy tombstone or brass marker in that new flower bed, they can do that, too!
Composting is a practical alternative to a costly and space-consuming contemporary way of managing corpses, and it offers immediate benefit to the planet. The composting process is also known as "natural organic reduction." Farmers have long used composting to get rid of the corpses of large farm animals - and it is a clean, efficient process that does work.
As one wag on the internet noted this morning, it will soon be "ashes to ashes, guts to dirt!"
Citizen Journalist
Getting rid of dead bodies has always been a challenging pursuit. In the old days the dearly departed were rolled into a holes and covered with dirt so that wolves and big cats and other predators could not find the corpses and drag them around in pieces and chunks. At some point the bodies would decompose and become one with the earth.
Dust to dust, ashes to ashes - and all that stuff.
The Egyptians decided that there was an afterlife, and the entry into that new reality depended on having a serviceable body for the trip, so they began the processes of embalming and mummifying bodies.
Our own culture has long placed dead bodies in wooden boxes for burial, a process that would keep the wild animals at bay and offer a bit of preservation - at least for awhile. Then embalming became the fad, probably as much for health reasons as for body preservation - and before long the highly profitably funeral industry developed.
Now, in most states to properly dispose of a body the family must choose between the less expensive cremation or the far most costly embalming and burial in a special - and very expensive - coffin, and often with a concrete container to go around the coffin. Many funeral directors are skilled at selling confused and grieving families the most expensive packages that the inheritance will allow.
A few years ago "green funerals" started to make a dent in the funeral racket. These less expensive exits featured no embalming and burial in shrouds or boxes made of biodegradable materials. Bodies buried in green funerals would work their way back into the soil much, much quicker than those pumped full of poisonous embalming fluid and then encased in mahogany and concrete.
(I spoke with a Missouri funeral director several years ago and found him to be decidedly bitter on the subject of green funerals.)
Green funerals were the way of the future, but now even they are being left in the dust by a new technology.
This week Washington's governor, Jay Inslee, signed a measure that would make the composting of human bodies legal in his state. Beginning in May of 2020 families may choose to have their dearly departed placed in a special vessel which is filled with wood chips, alfalfa, and straw. The moisture controlled vessel will then be rotated for a few weeks until all matter inside decomposes into enough rich soil to fill two average wheelbarrows. Families can then take their rich new soil and place it on the garden, use it to plant a tree, put in a new flower bed, or whatever they wish.
And if they want to put a fancy tombstone or brass marker in that new flower bed, they can do that, too!
Composting is a practical alternative to a costly and space-consuming contemporary way of managing corpses, and it offers immediate benefit to the planet. The composting process is also known as "natural organic reduction." Farmers have long used composting to get rid of the corpses of large farm animals - and it is a clean, efficient process that does work.
As one wag on the internet noted this morning, it will soon be "ashes to ashes, guts to dirt!"
1 comment:
Embalming's popularity skyrocketed during the Civil War as the fallen were shipped from battlefields back to their hometowns in unrefrigerated railroad cars. A Dr. Thomas Holmes of New York is credited with the invention of embalming fluid. His was arsenic based.
Although the law may vary by states embalming is not generally a legal requirement. The Federal Trade Commission has a Funeral Rule that explains the do's and don'ts of the funeral parlor business.
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