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Urban Death Project Aims To Rebuild Our Soil By Composting Corpses (inhabitat.com)
An anonymous reader writes: The Urban Death Project utilizes the process of composting to safely and gently turn our deceased into soil-building material, creating a meaningful, equitable and ecological urban alternative to existing options for the disposition of the dead," said Katrina Spade, a designer based in Seattle. "The project is a solution to the overcrowding of city cemeteries, a sustainable method of disposing of our dead, and a new ritual for laying our loved ones to rest."
Sky burial has been practiced in Tibet for millennia.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
I already did my part. This is exactly how I disposed of my mother-in-law's corpse.
Soylent Brown
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
And mix the ashes with a tad of soil and use that to plant a tree in a vase, when the tree grows a little, transplant it to ground.
But DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES compost me!
PS: In reality, my ashes will be thrown at sea. BUT DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES compost me!
Cannot imagine whay that would bother you. Composting will certainly give back to the earth and to future generations.
I have to note that I wanted cremated and flushed down the toilet at either a stripper bar or McDonald's. But this could be interesting. I'm envisioning my corpse being fed to one of those instant grinders like they use for rooster chicks (since only the hens lay eggs, and it's about a 50:50 mix at birth, so you do the math - then turning me into a nice compost for flowers or veggies.
Would vegans refuse to eat veggies grown from human content compost?
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Dead bodies are buried under the cherry trees. -- Motojirou Kajii.
I imagine a field where they recycle our flesh filled with bright red cherry trees in full bloom.
The person in charge of me and my stuff when I'm gone knows 1 thing: as long as I'm dead I don't care what you do with me. Cremate me, bury me, donate me to science, chop me in pieces and toss me in the trash, I don't care. Just make sure I'm dead first.
I was looking into the same thing a couple years ago and came to the same conclusion. It ain't easy. Even in states where it is legal, there are few choices. If I recall correctly, I found two locations in my state where a natural burial is possible, tho I may have extended my search to neighboring states. They still require a container because reasons but at least it can be biodegradable.
Just use a wood chipper to take care of the problem. I know it works cause I saw it on TV.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
Most of them are currently breathing. I think this way they would be much more useful.
Why is Snark Required?
Would vegans refuse to eat veggies grown from human content compost?
Just tell them it's soylent green.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
I read the headline as:
"Urban Death Project Aims To Rebuild Our Soil By Composting Congress"
And thought, "What an amazingly good idea!"
I mean, whatever you and your family want to do with your body is fine with me, but this is just idiotic from an environmental perspective. The environmental value of your body's chemical components is totally negligible compared to what you consume over your lifetime. I mean, I eat my weight's worth of food in a few months, so returning my body's nitrogen to the farmland is almost worthless. My share of fossil fuel burning is about 17 tonnes of carbon per year, so cremating the couple of kilograms of carbon I contain makes no difference.
The only real environmental problem with burial is that it ties up valuable urban land in a cemetery forever. Which is definitely an issue, but it's easy to solve: just get yourself cremated. This composting thing is expensive, unsafe, and a waste of time.
in cemetery - happy trees there.
With this project though - the fact how bones are handled is totally left out. They sure won't compose any time soon.
For composting, skull needs to be cracked open, bones ground up and soft body parts chopped into small pieces, like 2" dia, otherwise no composting, gets into stinky anaerobic process. A body, maybe 180 lbs > 60 % water, very challenging to compost, needs tons of carbon (wood) to compensate.
In recycling organic waste, let's say from restaurants or supermarkets, the major problem to get this material composted is to offset the water content with wood.
If reality kicks in with composting human bodies and gets public, people will be getting upset.
Looks like a very loony project - scamming airheads.
I'm not sure. Consider the nature of reincarnation. I don't know where I'm going with this.
Usually, I say I want to be cremated because I don't trust the living to respect my body, since I have body parts of both genders. I always imagine they'd do something more fucked up to it than they already have, just to make a good looking young man in that coffin. So, I want it burned in the event that a Matheson "What Dreams May Come" afterlife is the true fate of souls. Then I can lol as I watch the monstrosity that isn't me burn before I go into the light.
However, if somebody could guaranteed that this body would be added to a composting heap undisturbed, to let microorganisms break down its proteins, then perhaps that compost could be laid somewhere and maybe somebody would plant wildflowers (or some kind of flowers at least) in it. Then its proteins and other molecules could be repurposed as a flower garden. I wouldn't mind that, even in a Matheson "What Dreams May Come" scenario.
But yeah, ultimately, I cannot trust humans to respect my body parts. Burn it, I say. Less to hang on to after death. I guess it's vanity in the end. Vanity ties us to this existence.
In an empirical sense, yes, funerals are for the living. I'm just worried all this mysticism shit might not be made up. Funerals could be for the dead as well.
Medication is a huge issue when it comes to human waste. Lots and lots and lots of the drugs we take pass nasty by products into our waste that aren't easily removed. So one of the challenges around waste treatment plants is the disposal of the solid/sludge component. It isn't something that you could use as fertilizer without health impacts.
Conversely, I do have a lot of electrolytes - it's what plants crave.
When expanding highway 75, the main North/South artery that passes the downtown Dallas area around 1990, ground from an old forgotten cemetery was disturbed, and some of the construction workers were getting sick. Here is a few details of what they found. http://www.cemeteries-of-tx.co...
That this "idea" comes from Seattle should be one of your first clues that this is a bad idea.