Finished materials from the human-body composting process. By Ben Guarino Ben Guarino Reporter covering the practice and culture of science Email Bio Follow April 26 at 7:48 PM It may soon be legal for the dead to push daisies, or any other flower, in backyard gardens across Washington state. The state legislature recently passed a bill that, if signed by the governor, allows human bodies to be composted — and used for mulch.
Joshua Trey Barnett, an expert on ecological communication at the University of Minnesota at Duluth, listed the flaws in conventional burials: “We embalm bodies with toxic solutions, bury them in expensive caskets made of precious woods and metals and then indefinitely commit them to a plot of land.” Though incineration has a smaller ecological footprint, estimates suggest the average cremated body emits roughly 40 pounds of carbon and requires nearly 30 gallons of fuel to burn.
The company’s service, which would include a funeral ceremony, will cost about $5,500, she said . Microbes go to work within a large vessel, about eight feet tall and four feet wide, that fits a single body along with alfalfa, straw and wood chips. Over the course of 30 days, as temperatures in the vessel rise to 150 degrees, decomposition destroys the body, along with most pathogens and pharmaceuticals, Spade said.
Carpenter-Boggs recently oversaw a pilot study in which Recompose composted six donated cadavers. The results are still unpublished, but Recompose claimed in a news release the soil met safety thresholds set by the state’s ecology department.
My mom said the first time our orange tree grew fruit was after she had buried my grandmothers ashes under it.
And so it begins. Next we will be eating sausages and burgers!
YaY. I have always found taking up land with dead and preserved bodies with no soul to be incredibly odd. Of course these bodies will be toxic with medications and chemicals. But still it is moving in the right direction imho
What the f%$
What about providing housing for the live bodies living in tents off Interstate 5?
What about providing housing for the live humans living in tents off Interstate 5?
What’s next , SOYLENT GREEN !
Do they take to account, that on the on the ground where a men are buried, nothing could grow, as the ptomaine poisons the soil for many years. 🤢🤯☠️
WTF
Interesting concept.
wtf
What exactly does that mean?...
Why? Just because something can be done, doesn't mean that it should be. Isn't it against the law to desecrate a human body?
no
Is this for relatives to keep remains in--say a bottle so as to save on burial ground, or manure as in manure for farmland?
Sign me up.
Why don’t we do baby parts since we are such high achievers with abortions. Or is that already a thing?
maggieNYT
They’ve lost their ever-loving minds....😳😳🤡🤡😳😳
Is anyone aware and awake to the seriousness of this post? All I see is jokes and gamesmanship for the most ridiculous response.
I need some for my roses.🌹
This is another step toward treating people as if they are the same as animals. It will end up with treating living people Like animals as well
soylant green thumb
Ok I eat nothing but carbs from now on
Retarding decomposition is the dumbest thing we do. Twenty seven years in the cemetery business doing 7000 interments a year. Vaults and ‘sealer’ caskets are a farce and a waste of money. dusttodust cremation
Wow... So they burn on earth and later in Hell
I woulda guessed oregon
Sick!
Was this the DEMS idea? They already wanna pass a bill to terminate a full term baby at birth, that's MURDER!!
Nah I’m good thanks tho
Great idea.
This makes me sick.
Omg
maggieNYT Soylent Green
The question as always is - who benefits financially from this bill. Amen
Are Washingtonians aware ex-Nazis are in their State Houses?
It’s a little macabre. Reminds me of Soylent Green.
Is this ethical
No no no. I've composted for decades. No way can a body compost to one cubic yard.
That's a little too green for me, just saying.
88SEATTLE61 If it is used to grow vegetables, wouldn't make peope eating them cannibals?
WTF?
Why?
Soylent green next up!
Making humans commodities .., hmm, what will be market's reaction?
Ecologists must be happy now.
It’s Washington. I guess I really shouldn’t be surprised.
flangy i say we burn the bodies for renewable energy
Soylent Green
Umm whatt
So “pushing up the daisies” has become mainstream
WHAT?
Personally humans don't taste that good.
This is how atheist are gonna be buried
maggieNYT This is ridiculous! I want to be buried in an ornate casket that cost at least $10,000
So, we can be trees now?
cremated remains? Unclaimed?
How is it different?
deray
maggieNYT Soylent green anyone ?
😳
These are the bills they are working on! Do something about healthcare and tax cuts for us!!!!
maggieNYT I can’t wrap my head around this one.
Omg, this is an incredibly wise decision. It’s the most natural thing to return to the earth and feed the entire ecosystem we’re at the top of. It’s not unsanitary or disrespectful to the dead. It’s how the infrastructure of life itself is designed. A thousand times yes to this.
Dirt is dirt
maggieNYT Next up....Soylent green.
Wut
Hell yeah
Ultimate longevity of life
I saw something about this on a travel show. It's a great idea.
Plant me!
Fucking finally.
Maybe a good idea but Soylent Green keeps popping up in my mind. Kinda creepy.
Great. Less embalming chemicals.
maggieNYT Shades of Soylent Green ..............................
This is definitely how I'll choose to be processed when I die.
Ewwww! I guess good but ewwww!
Yum. So now when your wife dies you can have your dog take a crap on her. Intresting wounder if they have a bag full of celebs yet? I'm sure a 50pound bag full of reporters will cost $1.50 It would be great way to make my trees and grass grown.
That is wrong. So wrong. Stupid people.
shrubs........weeds.......human beings........they're all the same.
Grandma is going to be really pushing up daisies
No, no, no, no, no!
'Compost is not enough' - we must eat the Dead - said Bernie ~
Setting the stage for mass murder of the elderly, terminally ill, and anyone the left deems a threat
That is disgusting and unsanitary!
Well ... I don't know about implants or contaminated bodies. People will let ground burial/cemeteries go. Go green ... To the end!
You Got Compost From Your Relatives Who Passed Away
Now that is something I was not expecting! Will it make it easier for serial killers to dispose of their victims? 😒
Works good as most career politicions are piles of crap
The Funeral Industry gets nervous 😳
SoylentGreenNewDeal
Washington is on the Pacific coast. Bury them at sea.
Wait a minute, Stephen Miller may want those!
maggieNYT Your really talking bout the Trump Administration in Washington in DC Right!
Dont appreciate it but thats their call
Sickening
Wtf...
They also make good bar b que
AmandaBecker Why not? Currently there are natural burial sites where you can have the tree of your choice planted atop your ashes. Cycle of life.
Well, if you can't pass gun control, there are other options.
I LIKE IT!!! 👍🏼
I just threw up in my mouth
maggieNYT Scientists warn not to compost OrangeStained, TransFatSaturated Pigmen with FakeHair to preserve soil and water quality.
Wut?
Wa-hoo! I am SO in. Looking forward to keeping the dream of me alive! 🌳 zip98105
Hm. It’s creepy but not uninteresting.
Mmmmmmmm! Tastes like Mommy!
'Soylent green is people'
Immoral and sickening.
Is that more creepy than practical? Am I overthinking this?
Wait! What? TheOnion changed its name
maggieNYT ROFLMFAO, my dead ass would make some really rotten compost. But, I guess I could be used to make some kick-ass weed.
I volunteer trumps.
Planet friendly Compost, Without Formaldehyde
maggieNYT Ashes to ashes, and dust to dust, Now just manure I trust.
So what about the bones? Or is this just the ashes?
Sooo Gross! ........... bite me!🤣
Soylent Green!!
Two bags of Uncle Mulch, please.
Ashes to ashes.....
Some people will make a richer compound.
Eeewww.
maggieNYT Soylent.... Ah, screw it
That's what Nazis were doing in their concentration camps.
Dont they do that anyway eventually
maggieNYT This calls for an 'ewwwwww!'
In fact, I'm researching, I like this idea for my state.
Hey I'm in. A lot cheaper than a $10,000 funeral. Just get a headstone etched for me and slap it on the family plot. I was here.
Please tell about the Saudi Arabia newest crime they beheaded 37 young people last day
Yuk
maggieNYT nx nx nx!
That's morbid.
maggieNYT New Jersey has been doing this for decades. Check out the NJ Meadowlands.
Preparing for Whats to come are we?
Eeewww
Beurk !
And they can wrap the bodies in the FakeNews Washington Compost to get the process off to a quick start!
emrysfevre I like the idea of remaining in the life cycle rather than isolated in a box or burned up into unusable minerals but it should be free! I'm letting them use me for their compost.
I hope Granny Smith apples from Washington state are going to have a warning label.
I'm sure I speak for a lot of people when I say EWWWW!
Soilent Green.
Sorry but that is so sick!!!! Really really gross!!!
deray I'm never eating apples again.
Wonderful idea. Ick factor? Things done during embalming are truly ick. Wasn't surprised that it takes 30gals of fuel cremate a body, also ick.
An exosexuals wet dream.
I am thinking of the movie 'Pet Sematary' NO THANK YOU HumanCompost
deray I hope Granny Smith apples from Washington stage are going to have a warning label.
Is there an option to be left out in the woods to feed wild animals?
I want in on that! It gives true meaning to the term 'pushing up daisies.'
Hopefully they will weed out people with black thumbs first or nothing will grow in it.
My Dad has the idea when it’s ‘time’ just wander into the woods. He may be on to something.
Weight me down and toss me in the ocean. I'd rather be fish food.
And then rain and/or flooding will carry human remains down stream as well.
Omg
The gift that keeps on givin
SOYLENT GREEN IS MADE OUT OF PEOPLE!!!
Humans is nasty. Full of chemicals. Blech. Don’t ruin perfectly good manure with them.
I can' t go there. Sorry
Ya. “Composting” is that what they call it. ?
Oh cool! I can be turned into topsoil. Maybe I'll have better luck growing flowers.
wypipo do it again
Hillary Clinton thanks you. One less job for her suicide squad.
All well in good. However, If someone chooses to be buried in a family plot or otherwise, is it politically incorrect to do so? This is the choice of the deceased and family and who dares to excoriate them for doing so? None of their damn business!
Dust to potting soil.
JFC!
OMG there`s Aunt Bessie!😵
Most of the urrent Demoncratic party is dead, start with them.
Tfw a granny in Washington and you see your family buying that flower seed
Is that really necessary? How bout we modernize and secure our electric grid, wind power, solar .... but humans as fertilizer? Your mind is in the right place but you have missed the mark.
Seriously?
$5500 is five times more than cremation. They're gonna have to do some work to make it more cost effective.
Are you kidding me
I would like to be turned into compost.
Soylent is people!!
It never ceases to amaze me how slowly this so-called 'advanced civilization' of ours takes to reach the present, much less the future.
for those interested: Neal Asher The Departure (2011)
How progressive
Will their apples still be vegan!?
Me: ' Aunt Martha Would have Loved Those Roses!' Cousin Mary: ' Uhh..she Is The Roses' Me:😮
Isn’t this how all the zombie movies begin?
Mark my words... Soylent Green is coming!!! 😜
OK, but isn't that what happens now, over time, anyway?
kaleidocat, don't go getting any crazy ideas!
Why?
Soylent Green v2.0
I'd like to give this as a Gift!
Next stop, soylent green
Very good we are returned to the earth.
Don't want it on my flowers not a great idea 😁
Circle of life, completed.
Liberals eat their own
Oh Oh something going to happen ?!?!?
I'm pretty sure that was the way God intended. Embalming fluid is not found in nature.
The circle of life…
What!!!!!!
Oh. Okay.
So, so wrong and nasty.
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