Compost that gives me Moral questions

[Dirtmechanic]

"Walt Patrick slowly rolls a giant wooden spool-shaped cradle back and forth. Inside, a human body is gradually being turned into compost, one of the first licensed “natural organic reductions” to be performed in the entire country."

Not making this up. Eventually, coming to a special nursury near you, or maybe even a big box store, will be the remains of amino acids and minerals that long ago had a different form and probably a sense of humor.

We see sewage for sale, Milorganite style, and it seems to be useful. Where will this one go? I am pretty good with the idea of composting humans but with respect to my ancestors and values I hope for a well considered pathway on this recycling program.

Humans now being legally composted in Washington

Walt Patrick slowly rolls a giant wooden spool-shaped cradle back and forth. Inside, a human body is gradually being turned into compost, one of the first licensed “natural organic reductions…

www.8newsnow.com

 

[flowerbug]

just dig a hole and shove me in. the worms will figure it out. however, i guess some people are paranoid about diseases and such, but that to me is only an issue if you are going to be disturbed again any time soon. if buried in a place that has trees growing you may not be disturbed ever again or nobody will be doing much there for quite a number of years, long enough for you to be mostly digested.

the dental fillings and odd stuff the medical world has implanted can be removed but that may just be because the metals are valuable or they can be toxic (fillings used to be, now they're plastics).

as compared to sludge from a sewage treatment plant, i wouldn't use that unless it has been tested for heavy metals. too many places have combined sewers and there's too much metal.

ethically to me not being preserved/pickled and stuck in some box is what i prefer. burning me up would waste energy, composting with wood chips, well around here wood is usually available so it isn't any more drain on resources than what is currently going on, but to me i'd rather just be buried in the ground. don't need anything fancy.

notice nobody talks about how much they cost to compost, but here a cubic yard of wood chips costs about $8.

as a p.s. i see the mention in the headlines that they have to lift the restrictions in LA on the air quality for creamation because they've had so many people dying from Covid. to me that is a much worse moral issue beyond the disease and deaths of all those people, but to compound it into burning energy for no purpose and to waste resources like that.

 

[Zeedman]

While this is not a pathway I would choose, I can understand why some would consider such an option. It is a way of returning ones elements back to nature, not much different IMO than scattering ones ashes into the ocean. The moral issue is where the finished compost goes, and what can legally be done with it. Such compost should still be treated legally as human remains, and never allowed to be given to anyone outside the next of kin.

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

My ashes are going into a National Forest - secretly.

 

[Alasgun]

When we were on the ranch, a common sight in the spring was the various livestock who’d perished over the winter slowly rolling downstream toward the lake 100 miles away.

i commented to my wife once “ thats what i want you to do with me. After all the critters who have died at my hand, it would be sweet justice for the coon’s, coyotes and such to have one last opportunity to either hike a leg or take a bite as i go sauntering by.”

She didn’t go for it and we moved away from there many years ago which is probably as well. To each his own, scripture tells us “we will return to the dust from which we came”, one thing for sure the dude rolling around in that wooden barrel don’t know the difference

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I've always sort of hoped that, when the time comes, laws will have changed to allow something like Tibetan Sky Burials (or an equivalent). Put me DIRECTLY back in the food chain.

Though I can see a problem with just feeding people to random animals (as opposed to specially chosen ones) I'm not really sure we want a lot of animals developing a taste for human flesh. They might not want to wait until we are dead to have their meal (I think I heard someone suggest that that is part of the reason why there are so many crocodile and gharial attacks in the Ganges; they are so used to eating incompletely cremated bodies dumped in that they now consider human a standard food source.)

 

[Alasgun]

Im sorry if my humorous comment‘s drug this thread into the ditch! I was only joking!
That sky burial thing is a little too much for my taste. Can’t see any of the family going for it either.

AND after 4 1/2 decades in the Oil industry, id be proud to know someone squandered a few cubic ft. of natural gas to cremate me or a gallon of diesel to run the backhoe. After all, Andie MacDowell’s always telling me “im worth it”.

 

[flowerbug]

there is a place that studies buzzard/vulture and you can donate your body to their studies. in Texas. i don't have a link, but i think you could find it if you searched. if you want skyburial that might be as close as you can get. another at this point would be the body farm people who study decomposition. i think they too take donations, but i'm not sure how either would work for tranporting you from where you are to there and how that is paid for.

since my goal is to be as efficient and non-energy intensive as possible, long commutes of unpreserved bodies doesn't make sense. unfortunately the more local green burial sites that i know of are rediculously expensive.

i'm still hoping we get more local and better alternatives to cremation or burial within tombs.

the restriction of who gets the results of mulch may make sense to some, but then there are people without extended family. city woods mulch seems ok with me.

 

[ducks4you]

Not gonna happen at My place. I will go with livestock manure/leftovers. You never know where human decomposed compost comes from, OR, if any contains communicable diseases, which is why most civilizations got away from it. Not gonna be a cannibal.

 

[Niele da Kine]

On our island, when someone dies the remaining family can get a doctor to come by and certify the death and then if the family buries the body in 72 hours it only requires a $15 form filed with the County noting where the body was buried. I'm pretty sure you have to bury them in either your own land or land that you have permission to bury them in. Usually, because of the short time frame, only the family will be at the interment and a memorial service will be held later.