Human composting--something you'd do?

[KayLR]

Washington becomes the first state to legalize composting of humanshttps://www.cnn.com/2019/05/22/us/washington-human-composting-legal-trnd/index.html

It's intriguing to me. I'm considering it.

[bae]

We do "natural" (non-embalmed) burials here, which seems to go over well, but it's a real pain to comply with the law.

[JaneV2.0]

It sounds like the best solution to me.

[CathyA]

Anything has to be better than being embalmed. I heard once about being inoculated with mushroom spores as a way to decompose. Composting sounds interesting. When you think of all that goes into embalming, then putting in a coffin, then into a big cement vault, just about anything else sounds better for the earth.

[Chicken lady]

My kids keep saying they’re going to toss me in the bone yard. I’d be totally on board, but the law wouldn’t be.
when my dad was diving his friends were under strict orders to be unable to recover the body if anything happened. He said he’d eaten so many crabs and fish that they deserved a turn to eat him.

[razz]

I read about natural decomposition earlier and think it is the logical disposal method.

[happystuff]

That or cremation. I don't want any remains to stay around longer than I was actually alive.

[catherine]

I think traditional burials are for the living relatives. I don't care what they do--whatever will make them happy.

I was curious to see how the composting worked--would they throw you in with a bunch of other humans? Would they throw in potato peels and grass clippings? What about carbon? You'd probably need a lot of sawdust and dead leaves to balance out all that decomposing nitrogen! But the basic premise is like cremation.

My opinion on that is it's a lot of time for your relatives to wait for the soil, and they would be paying for that time. So I'd rather just be cremated and add the ash to the garden. Or to Lake Champlain.

ETA: Link to an interesting exploration of burial: https://emergencemagazine.org/story/imagining-burial/?fbclid=IwAR0ILjVx0wnIBXstMrutbeo07JgUMMSErOZ5CSNj NtkewJr-MM-fHs_eI3A

[Float On]

You don't have to embalm in Missouri if burial is within a few days but I think I'm going for the ashes to ashes way out. Hate to take up space when my time here is so short.

[Teacher Terry]

Cremation for us.

[jp1]

Colorado didnt require embalming. Neither of my parents were. Personally i like the idea of being composted. I’ll be a productive part of the cycle of life. And i won’t be as environmentally unfriendly as cremation.

[jp1]

Catherine, for the record your post had me laughing big time. Such practical questions. Will the loved ones be asked to bring a bag of potato peels and other stiuff to the funeral to make the compost work right? I can just see it:

Small child: mom, why are we throwing food scraps on grandma?
Mom: because she needs them to decompose properly. It's how we can show her we loved her.
Small child: couldn't we have just given her a hug before we tossed her in this hole?
Mom: ummm...

[Simplemind]

We have aqua cremation (Alkaline Hydrolysis) in Oregon. It is about twice the price of a regular cremation. The times they are a changing...

[Rogar]

I somehow get consolation that I will be interred in my family cemetery plot that goes back several generations. I could double check and it might be worth looking into, but while there may be a way around embalming but I don't think there is a way around the concrete vault.