Washington may become first state to legalize human composting

[brooklynite]

Source: New York Daily News

Washington may become the first state to legalize human composting — which would give families a third option in addition to burial or cremation after their relatives die.

In the process — also called “recomposition,” — bodies are placed in a vessel which speeds up decomposition and turned into a soil which can be returned to families, NBC reported.

“We really only have two easily accessible options in the U.S. — cremation and burial,” said Katrina Spade, a 41-year-old Seattle-based designer and architect. “And the question is: Why do we only have two options, and what would it look like if we had a dozen?”

Democratic Sen. Jamie Pedersen is sponsoring a bill that would expand options for disposing human remains. If the bill is passed, it would take place May 1, 2020.

Read more: Washington may become first state to legalize human composting

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. You could return as a rose bush...

[MFM008]

2. great...add all the rain to that

[dhol82]

3. Excellent!

It annoys me that NY state requires embalming.
I would prefer to let my body just become compost.

[yonder]

4. Lee Hays of the Weavers had some words about this:

If I should die before I wake,
All my bone and sinew take
Put me in the compost pile
To decompose me for a while.

Worms, water, sun, will have their way,
Returning me to common clay
All that I am will feed the trees
And little fishies in the seas.

When radishes and corn you munch,
You may be having me for lunch
And then excrete me with a grin,
Chortling, "There goes Lee again."

[dae]

7. Ha, that was quite a witty ditty.

[no_hypocrisy]

9. Actually in the documentary, "Wasn't That A Time?", Lee Hays wryly opined that

he left instructions that his remains be added to his home's compost heap. The epilogue of the film confirmed that is exactly what happened.

[muriel_volestrangler]

21. Or the 19th century "On Ilkley Moor"

The later verses:

Lyrics in Yorkshire dialect

Tha's bahn' to catch thy deeath o' cowd
Then us'll ha' to bury thee
Then t'worms'll come an' eyt thee oop
Then t'ducks'll come an' eyt up t'worms
Then us'll go an' eyt up t'ducks
Then us'll all ha' etten thee
That's wheear we get us ooan back

Interpretation in Standard English

You're bound to catch your death of cold
Then we will have to bury you
Then the worms will come and eat you up
Then the ducks will come and eat up the worms
Then we will go and eat up the ducks
Then we will all have eaten you
That's where we get our own back

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Ilkla_Moor_Baht_%27at

[yonder]

24. Thanks for this and the link too.

For many years I've had an interest in old ballads, broadsides and song cycles. I can't say I've come across this before but the "without a hat" (without a cloak??) theme is vaguely familiar - I'll keep my eyes and ears open.

[muriel_volestrangler]

35. It's so well-known in England that it's a musical shorthand for 'Yorkshire'

though people may not know the later verses with the worms etc.

[duhneece]

34. That was quite wonderful, as she says in the end

But now we are at the Lee Hays song stage, and organize: Talking Union

[mindem]

5. Cool,

a step closer to soylent green.

[BigmanPigman]

6. I wonder how much it costs compared to the other two ways.

[BluesRunTheGame]

8. Why stop at composting?

[The Polack MSgt]

10. Even before Fargo came out I used to say that my family

Should just run me through a wood chipper and blow me over a garden plot.

The obscene costs and waste of American style funerals bugs me no end

[Rorey]

12. Same here

Which is why I'm looking into donating my body to science. I've actually got a letter for my kids specifying that's what I want, along with the phone number of a place. I do need to see a lawyer so I can make sure it'll for sure happen the way I'd like.

[dalton99a]

11. Cost: $5,500

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/washington-could-become-first-state-legalize-human-composting-n952421

Pedersen sees recomposition as an environmental and a social justice issue. He said allowing it would particularly benefit people who can’t afford a funeral or aren’t comfortable with cremation. Recompose aims to charge $5,500 for its services, while a traditional burial generally cost more than $7,000 in 2017, according to the National Funeral Directors Association. (Cremation can cost less than $1,000, though that doesn’t include a service or an urn.)

[Rorey]

13. I'd prefer my kids spend that money on a very nice gathering

Or just buy something they want.

The last four funerals I've had to deal with have each cost around $10,000. Ridiculous.

[babylonsister]

14. That price is too high.

Service/urn not required here.

[Ciaphas Cain]

15. Lol.

Just let the city deal with my body. I pay taxes, damn it.

[LeftInTX]

16. I always say, "Just throw me in the garbage!"

But it's illegal around here.

[SeattleVet]

17. We also have 'green burials', and a funeral co-op.

The Peoples Memorial Association has low-cost arrangements (and, depending on financial circumstances, no-cost). My wife and I are at the age now where we have started thinking about these types of things, especially after my heart attack in August (I'm fine - 2 stents and I walked out of the hospital the next day.)

https://peoplesmemorial.org

When a friend's mother passed away, they were able to get a posthumous membership. I think the total for them (services, viewing, and cremation) was around $2000, total.

There are options out there!

[Kablooie]

18. When will they legalize embedding bodies in clear acrylic blocks?

That's what I want.
And I want it done while nude too.

[Doreen]

19. I never worry about what will happen to my body.

First, I can not afford to make plans and my family can not afford it either. Second, my body is only a shell and there is no reason to do anything special with it. Third, I have always said just cremate me and throw my ashes in a horse pasture.

[LuvNewcastle]

22. My family lived across the street from a cemetery

when I was growing up, and I used to look at the people who went in to see what they were doing. Occasionally I would see someone walk up with a container of ashes and spread them around their family's graves. I went out and looked at the ashes after the people left, and I saw the tiny chips of bone that the fire didn't consume. It seemed like a respectful way to lay a loved one to rest. I don't see why you couldn't put ashes in a compost pile. I don't think it would hurt anything and I doubt anyone would care enough to make a complaint about it.

[Doreen]

36. That is also a good idea.

My one last attempt to help humanity. Realistically I do not know what they do with dead poor people who can not afford to prepare for their death. I really do like the compost idea.

[BumRushDaShow]

20. ...

[Cold War Spook]

23. Sounds good

I was just going to bury my Wife in the back yard so I can keep getting her Social Security. She is too sick for me to throw a dinner party. What should I do with the bones? Only 2 of my dogs can handle the big bones.

[xor]

25. I always liked ideas related to this.

There was (maybe still is) this one concept of putting bodies in a egg shaped thing that would help a tree get nourishment as it started to grow. I dunno, the idea of having a living tree that will be around for hundreds or even thousands of years instead of just a grave stone with some decomposed human remains seems more interesting. Although, a forest fire would suck.

https://www.cnn.com/2017/05/03/world/eco-solutions-capsula-mundi/index.html

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

26. I've seen that before.

I always thought trees planted next to graves already kind of do that unless its a Pine Tree or something w shallow roots.

[xor]

28. Would that require a biodegradable coffin?

I know they make those. I the idea of a "sacred forest" that doesn't feel like a cemetery. Loved ones would use GPS to locate the tree since there wouldn't be markings on on it. I'm usually not a sentimental person. In fact, some people might even say I don't have any feelings, but that concept really appeals to me.

Here's another thing that looks interesting https://urnabios.com/

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

29. Not sure. But,

the trees I see in old graveyards possibly invaded old wood coffins would be my guess. I catch myself wondering if their spirits are in the trees 'looking' at me or sensing what they've become. (wood and leaves etc.) I hear what you're saying about the coffin though. I like the egg idea. Kinda creepy(?) topic but thought provoking. We're all just really dust in the wind...

[ismnotwasm]

27. Cool

I always wanted to donate it to CSI study. But compost is good

[Kashkakat v.2.0]

30. May I be the first to say it - this kinda grosses me out. Sure put me in the ground and let me

rot and crawl with maggots - in fact, I intend to pre-arrange my own "green" burial (which is cheap and involves no embalming and you get put into the ground in a nature preserve in a plain cardboard box). But this is not that. This is your body put in a"vessel" and then they do stuff to it - not sure what cos article doesnt say. Bones for instance - naturally those would take many decades if not longer to decompose naturally. So how are they going to "speed up" the decomposition of those? Do you get ground up like hamburger? Or dissolved in chemicals like in that one infamous episode of "Breaking Bad".

In short - ewwwww.

I wouldnt mind being put in a tree and eaten by vultures (a native american way) or dumped overboard at sea, but I just dont want people doing stuff to me/my body. I wont have any use for my body of course, but its served me well and I do have a certain fondness for it.

[doc03]

31. They could use the compost to fertilize cannabis. Willie Nelson's

song may come true "Roll Me up and Smoke Me when I Die". I am looking for a good stock to invest in the
cannabis industry I will have to look into composting too.

[handmade34]

32. still legal to bury

on your property in Vermont (adhering to regulations, of course, proper depth being one)... my property is very wet and I am still looking for a place suitable... also still legal to transport a body in Vermont (must have approval from town clerk)... when my father died last year, we put him in my son's truck and took the body to the local crematorium ourselves... entire cost was around $300. (box from crematorium cost $70.)

I suggested my mother donate her body to Michigan State University and that is where she went when she died a few years back... I have registered to donate my body to University of Vermont and that is where I will go if we can't find suitable place on my land...

[Oneironaut]

33. It's my wish to have a sky burial, and I regret that I can't have one in the US.

Cemeteries are a pointless vanity. Your body is stuffed in an air-tight, overly expensive shoebox so that anaerobic bacteria can munch on you until you turn into bones and a long-lasting sludge. It’s so wasteful!

I want to feed animals, so that my death could have meaning. I don’t want my body to be a useless, rotting piece of meat. I don’t want a headstone that developers 200 years from now will bulldoze for a parking lot.

I want my elements to be eaten by living things - at that point in time, they would be alive, and I would have already left the party, so to speak. In that way, my energy would become theirs. My molecules will help keep their bodies alive. It’s the circle of life.

Death sucks, but I’d like something good to come from it. I want there to be some happiness I died - a free meal!

I know it’s a gross subject, but I’m sad that I’ll probably be like most people - incinerated in an oven. Too bad.