Ashes to Ashes, or Guts to Dirt?

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Back in May of 2019 I wrote a piece for this blog which was titled "Composting Grandma" and focused on the relatively new practice of composting human remains instead of the more wasteful removal processes of burial or cremation.  At that time legislatures in four states - Oregon, Washington, Colorado, and Vermont - had passed laws which allowed for humans to be composted after death.  This week a fifth state, California, has been added to the list of places where a person my choose to be composted after death.  The California law should be fully in effect by 2027.

For those without a background in gardening or farming, composting is a process whereby animal and vegetative matter is allowed to decompose through a natural biological process, and the result is a nutrient rich soil.  It is a very "green" process when compared to embalming (adding a poison to the dead body in order to preserve it) and burial - or cremation (burning) of the remains.

Farmers have traditionally used composting as a way to get rid of the carcasses of dead farm animals.

One company that specializes in the composting of human bodies described their process this way:

"Human composting is the gentle transformation of a human body into soil.  Each body is placed into a stainless steel vessel along with wood chips, alfalfa, and straw.  Microbes that naturally occur on the plant material and on and in our bodies power the transformation into soil."

That particular company uses a stainless steel vessel that is four by eight feet.  It is turned occasionally to aerate the body as it decomposes.   The process normally takes about thirty days and produces around a cubic yard of new soil - enough to fill a truck bed.  The new soil is checked for harmful pathogens before being turned over to the family.

Current cost estimates for composting human remains, according to information available on the internet, are around $5,500.  Cremation is less at about $3,000, and burials which usually involve embalming and expensive preparations, caskets, burial vaults, and cemetery plots are considerably more.  Many cemeteries in the United States, especially some of those in urban areas, are running out of space.   The composting of human remains requires far less energy that either embalming and burial or cremation, and instead of being taken out of commission, more soil is actually created.  

A major plus to the composting option is that the deceased leaves behind something of value.  The new soil will help sustain the planet.  It can be added to a memorial, such as a new flower bed or a specially planted tree, or worked into the ground at a park or in some location that had special meaning to the deceased.

And for those who want to be remembered with a stone or a marker, that can still be done as well - placed in the local cemetery - or next to that special new flower bed - or beside that memorial tree.

The composting of human remains certainly seems to make sense from an environmental point of view.  It saves the energy associated with cremation and reduces the bad chemistry added to the earth through embalming - but more importantly the new compost helps to strengthen the planet and make it a healthier and greener place for future generations.

And when the earth wins, we all win!