Sweden's new funeral rite - bodies made into tree mulch

[T_i_B]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/09/28/wfreez28.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/09/28/ixportal.html

A town in Sweden plans to become the first place in the world where corpses will be disposed of by freeze-drying, as an environmentally friendly alternative to cremation or burial. Jonkoping, in southern Sweden, is to turn its crematorium into a so-called promatorium next year.

Swedes will then have the chance to bury their dead according to the pioneering method, which involves freezing the body, dipping it in liquid nitrogen and gently vibrating it to shatter it into powder. This is put into a small box made of potato or corn starch and placed in a shallow grave, where it will disintegrate within six to 12 months.

People are to be encouraged to plant a tree on the grave. It would feed off the compost formed from the body, to emphasise the organic cycle of life.

The national burial law is currently being updated to accommodate a practice that is expected to spread across the country over the next few years.

[demnan]

1. Cool!

Maybe the technology will come here by the time I die. I kind of like the idea of becoming fertilzer!

[Fridays Child]

38. Ashes to ashes, mulch to mulch.

Sounds right to me. :)

[katinmn]

2. Leave it to the environmentally friendly Swedes to think of this.

:)

[mzteris]

3. Wow.

Just wow.

Environmentally friendly burial.

I was pro-cremation figuring the smoke/ashes was less of a problem than long-term storage....... but THIS is even better! I hope it migrates to the US quickly. Though I suspect there will be a hard sell in Amurkha.

I bet the fundies will go nuts over this.

[bleedingheart]

4. a much better idea than covering the landscape with tombstones

[formercia]

5. Soylent Green

The next step is to use it for school lunches.

[Lerkfish]

10. don't really see that extrapolation myself.

:shrug:

[nothometoday]

21. If you ask my child

She may say that is already happening :)


Great idea though....About the tree mulch.

[Stockholm]

6. I don´t know

Jönköping is the center of the bible belt in Sweden.

And they seem ok with the idea, so far at least.

[T_i_B]

9. Well, it depends

different denominations have different attitudes towards burial so you never know.

[rodeodance]

7. nice, very nice.

[Spinzonner]

8. Services by Bandini ...

[booksenkatz]

11. Shattered? Sh-dooby. nt

[cyberpj]

19. LOL! And look here, I think the lyrics fit!

Just think of the 'big apple' as EARTH.

SHATTERED
(M. Jagger/K. Richards)

Uh-huh, shattered

Shattered, shattered
Love and hope and sex and dreams
Are still surviving on the street
Look at me, I'm in tatters!
I'm a shattered
Shattered

Friends are so alarming
My lover's never charming
Life's just a cocktail party on the street
Big Apple
People dressed in plastic bags
Directing traffic
Some kind of fashion
Shattered

Laughter, joy, and loneliness and sex and sex and sex and sex
Look at me, I'm in tatters
I'm a shattered
Shattered

All this chitter-chatter, chitter-chatter, chitter-chatter 'bout
Shmatta, shmatta, shmatta -- I can't give it away on 7th Avenue
This town's been wearing tatters (shattered, shattered)
Work and work for love and sex
Ain't you hungry for success, success, success, success
Does it matter? (Shattered) Does it matter?
I'm shattered.
Shattered

Ahhh, look at me, I'm a shattered
I'm a shattered
Look at me- I'm a shattered, yeah

Pride and joy and greed and sex
That's what makes our town the best
Pride and joy and dirty dreams and still surviving on the street
And look at me, I'm in tatters, yeah
I've been battered, what does it matter
Does it matter, uh-huh
Does it matter, uh-huh, I'm a shattered

Don't you know the crime rate is going up, up, up, up, up
To live in this town you must be tough, tough, tough, tough, tough!
You got rats on the west side
Bed bugs uptown
What a mess this town's in tatters I've been shattered
My brain's been battered, splattered all over Manhattan

Uh-huh, this town's full of money grabbers
Go ahead, bite the Big Apple, don't mind the maggots, huh
Shadoobie, my brain's been battered
My friends they come around they
Flatter, flatter, flatter, flatter, flatter, flatter, flatter
Pile it up, pile it high on the platter

[Occulus]

12. What a beautiful way to honor the dead.

It sounds almost Native American, doesn't it?

[Spinzonner]

13. Personally, I don't want my survivors pining for me

[Coventina]

28. *rim shot*

:D

[dooner]

41. Yew could choose cedar instead... n/t

[Dufaeth]

14. I've always wanted to be tree food

It makes so much more sense than trying to preserve the body in a sealed casket.

[HeeBGBz]

15. Sounds like a workable thing

I would rather be freeze dried than BBQ'd.

[all.of.me]

16. that's compost, not mulch.

[Skarbrowe]

17. Wasn't something like that on L&O SVU last night? Great idea!

I've always said that when I die, I want to be tree food! If I move to Sweden, I could actually be tree food before I was worm food. Also, I hate the heat, so I don't want to be cremated. I love the cold, so freezing sounds pretty good. Ah, and then to be gently shattered into a find powder and mixed with corn starch. Sounds like a great recipe and I LOVE cooking and eating. Take it easy for 6 to 12 months, because I LOVE to just do nothing for long periods of time. And THEN I could be tree food! I'm not making a joke. I would love to know this is how this stupid shell ends up.

Leave it to Sweden. Maybe we will do it here, soon, real soon.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

18. I had both my parents cremated last year

and there is a moment when you know they are in that oven... well, it is rather difficult. Fire is a primal fear for all of us.

This is much friendlier all around. I hope they start doing it here.

My mother in law died about 10 years ago and wanted to be buried in her native Germany. However, they only "rent" burial spaces there for 10 years. I am not sure what they do with the bodies after that. This would certainly solve space problems.

[MindPilot]

20. wouldn't simply burying the body accomplish the same thing?

or is there something I don't understand about decomposition?

[neweurope]

22. Yes, but it would take much, much longer, especially for

the bones. And therefore you'd need a much bigger area if you didn't want to constantly dig up those bones again.

In Germany most people are simply buried - we don't believe in all of that embalming (yet)- and then have a tombstone which will in most cases be removed after 30 years. Cremation is becoming more popular lately (I think because it's cheaper, the normal burial costing a fortune) and I've thought of it for myself (because of the cost); but who wants to be sitting around in an urn for the next several hundred years?

I think this idea is great.

-----------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[Festivito]

25. Less digging in frozen ground, fewer bacteria, storable, smaller, cheaper.

Sweden is a cold place in which to dig graves, so it can wait until Spring sometimes.

The only problem I see is that the natural methods of breakdown thwarted might lead to unforseen microbial problems later. But, the current use of concrete vaults and composite material caskets is certainly far worse.

So, hats off to our Swedes.

[Stockholm]

31. I don´t think we have to wait until spring anymore...

We have some machines here too now. There is even talk about us receiving one of those fantastic horse-less wagons from Amurka real soon.

[Festivito]

34. Oh good, skiing to gravesites with shovels in reindeer skins is hard work.

With the looming oil crisis, perhaps someday we will revert to waiting until Spring and using shovels in the far north, here.

Oh, that new horse-less wagon will make great transport for the liquid-nirtrogen frozen bodies!

Hej pa dej (I don't know how to write in Swedish -- obviously.)
have a nice day, you humorous Stockholmer.

[eallen]

23. It would be neat to see cemetaries become tended forests.

A memorial plaque can be attached to the tree as it grows. Each descedant gets a choice of tree. I want a burr oak.

:hippie:

[MuseRider]

24. What a wonderful idea!

I hope by the time I die they can do that here. I told my husband to roll me off the deck into the pond but he won't do it. :shrug:

[A Simple Game]

29. Roll me off the deck into the pond, good one.

I always say throw me in a ditch for all I care.

Republicans can not be allowed to plant black walnut trees over their composted bodies.

[Lisa]

45. good point -- since they're already "nuts" ...

... though in a different sense!

[kikiek]

26. I love it. It's like becoming a beautiful tree.

[havocmom]

27. Fantastic!

When does some clever rascal will start Hospice Tourism so the pro-tree and environmentally-conscious terminally ill could go to Sweden to die and so honor their bond with the Mother Earth?

I would love to have the vessel of my body disposed of in this manner. It makes so much sense on so many levels.

[Pacifist Patriot]

30. I like it!

[Angry Girl]

32. Her site is promessa.se

You can read more about the process is Mary Roach's excellent book

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

Edit: There's a chapter devoted to Promessa's process.

[yellowcanine]

33. Title is extremely misleading. Mulch is material put on TOP of the ground

around trees and shrubs. It is not organic material mixed into the soil.

[pitohui]

51. i think we all realize that

oh god this is really a bit sick-making, isn't it?

reminds me of the wood-chipper scene in one of those carl hiassen books

[Sabriel]

35. I don't know why, but this article makes me laugh hysterically

There's something very funny about it, very Monty Python-esque. Or maybe I'm just hysterical.

[FlaGranny]

36. I think I like that idea,

but I wonder how expensive.

[muriel_volestrangler]

39. Yes, I'd like to know how much energy is needed

for the freezing in liquid nitrogen, and then the mechanical vibrating.

To get completely unsentimental and rational about it, mass burials are probably the most environmentally sound option, as long as the water runoff doesn't go into any drinking water. Why dig individual holes? Most animal parts (the bones, gristle etc. from the meat we buy) are disposed of in our rubbish tips at very little cost in energy - should we do the same for humans?

[FlaGranny]

48. Well, I've always told anyone who

would listen that I don't care what they do with my body when I'm gone, but I don't think they'd put it in a garbage dump. :rofl: But I doubt I'd care.

[baby_mouse]

54. So the ideal way to die would be a bus crash, then.

Oh, hang it, buses aren't sufficiently environmetally friendly. How about dozens being struck by a freak mass tree fall on a tree-hugging expedition? Sticking to the path, of course.

:sarcasm:

There is a LITTLE sentimentalism regarding human cadavers allowed, methinks...

[ComerPerro]

37. Wow. Just. Wow. That is so cool, but I bet a lot of people

will have some problems with this. Mainly, the religious right. And those who don't really want to think about after their demise (understandable).

But, I would be interested in doing this. I really like the idea.

[SmokingJacket]

40. And your grandchildren can chop you down and burn you in the

woodstove! I love it.

This really is the sanest way to dispose of a body. The concrete box filled with slowly rotting goo gives me nightmares.

[dooner]

42. freeze, dip, vibrate and shatter... that's quite a funeral n/t

[ElectroPrincess]

43. I guess the term ...

"A chip off of the old block" will take on a new meaning for da Swedes, yah?" :yoiks:

[progressoid]

44. Damn, those Swedes are beating us at ANOTHER thing. But its a cool thing.

I'm sending this one out to some family members!

[Mutley]

46. I'd do that.

Cirlce of life and all... :D

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

47. Sounds OK to me. Unfortunately, it makes too much sense.

Sooner or later we'll all end up itsy-bitsy little flecks of star stuff anyway.

[pitohui]

49. it's prob. an excellent idea

however have to admit i could have done w.out the blow by blow, step by step description of exactly how the body was mulched

feeling a bit queasy now...

[npincus]

50. reminds me of "Soylent Green"... human bodies used to make a food

in an overpopulated future world

[baby_mouse]

56. You're the second person in this thread to say this peculiar thing

Do you eat coffins? Do you sprinkle your relatives ashes on your pasta as a condiment???

How is Soylent Green related to this practice in any way?

[npincus]

57. no- the idea of re-cycling human corpses as a kind of resource

reminded me of this. It was a movie (if you are not familiar) from the 60s or possibly 70s. An interesting and shocking movie.

[muriel_volestrangler]

58. The soil above a normal burial would eventually recycle ones remains

into grass (though it would take longer than with a tree and a shallow grave).

[incapsulated]

52. I would love this, myself...

People could visit a beautiful tree, which would be a truly "living" expression of my former self, instead of some graveyard.

:)

[Faygo Kid]

53. By Yumpin' Yiminy!

I'm tired of dese here United States, I tink I go home to Minnesooooota. This Swedish-American thinks pickling is another good idea. Love that pickled herring, after all (gotta grow up with it, I guess). Swedish pancakes with lingonberries - yum! I like this idea, too.

[baby_mouse]

55. How long before the Xtians revile this unGodly practice?

Hundreds of fundamentalist Xtian funeral parours going out of business. Blasphemy!

[ismnotwasm]

59. Right on

First, they can take all my organs that are useable, and then right to tree mulch. I wish we did that here. Makes me proud to be of Swedish decent!

[mom cat]

60. Thanks very mulch for this article. I really dig it.

Sorry...Its late.

[T_i_B]

61. Mulch ado about nothing?

:D