Turning people into compost (brief science article)

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Interesting...

Turning people into compost

What is the most environmentally friendly way of disposing of dead bodies? Turning them into compost, says Swedish biologist Susanne Wiigh-Masak.

The problem with conventional burial, Wiigh-Masak points out, is that cemeteries can pose a threat to water supplies, while cremation releases toxic gases. So she has developed a method of immersing bodies in liquid nitrogen to remove water, causing them to crumble into fine organic dust. This is then placed in a container that biodegrades within six months.

The result makes splendid potting soil, says Wiigh-Masak. She has tested the method with pig and cow carcasses and says she planted roses above the containers with excellent results.

According to Science magazine's online news service Science Now, Swedish government officials have told Wiigh-Masak that if public opinion is favourable, the relevant laws could be changed to allow the method to be used for humans. Wiigh-Masak hopes to turn her first corpse into compost next year.

Dead bodies could enrich soil faster

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001

Answers

Gross . . . but beats the hell over Soylent Green . . .

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001

I want to do it! I want to be compost when I die! TRen

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001

Well, if ever it becomes an available option I'd take it over cremation or being buried in a concrete box. Closer to closing the circle that way. I wonder if the bones crumble easily?

={(Oak)-

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001


Have yourself scattered in your garden and not only could you live forever as a perennial, you last will and testement could contain the words "Eat Me" and they would carry true meaning :>)

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001

I'm in!

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001


Jay: ROTFLMAO! Good one!

Oak: I wondered about the bones breaking down quickly, too. Unfortunately I haven't found much more info on this subject so don't know the answer.

I'd definitely like to hear more about it, though...

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001


LMAO!! Gee... whoever would have thought... First, that anything would grow over a dead body (damn - go figure, lol!), second that cemetaries (which are almost as over-crowded as the SURFACE of the Earth) would cause problems with water.... Rather morbid, I admit, but we all would be coal, crude or even diamonds in a million or so years were it not for the 'sanitary' concrete grave liners anyway.

They needed how much money to STUDY this??????? Damn... Where do I get on that band-wagon?? I could use the money!

Reminds me of the scientist for Monsanto who stated - before a judge that they didn't know pollen from GMO crops would spread to adjacent farms... BTW _ Monsanto WON that case....

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001


There was quite a discussion going on this over on Garden Web in the composting forum. Seemed like everyone liked the idea there too. It's probably because those of us on a similar wavelength are reading the same things and doing the same things, but just for a short while there, it gave me a rosy glow about people in general becoming more environmentally aware....*sigh*.

I bury all my animals under areas destined to be flower beds and flowering shrubs and whatnot. Some day I hope to join them all there, pushing up the daisies, so to speak. 'Modern' American funeral proceedures appeal to me not at all.

I think it came up before, but in one of my organic apple growing books there is a story repeated about the apple tree planted on the man's grave that grew roots in the shape of his skeleton, utilizing the calcium. Nice way to go, I thought.

There is also a movement afoot in England towards green burial, where you are wrapped in a cloth shroud or cardboard box and buried out in a wild area with a tree to mark your headstone. This area remains as a wild park and there is a map available if someone really really wants to find which oak tree they planted you under, but on the whole, both these concepts seem ecologically sounder to me than nasty modern embalming!

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001


I LOVE THIS!!!!

By the way, Sue: sometimes you maka me crazy, I must admit, but this thing you justa said was soooooooooo beautiful!!!!!!!!!!

".... but we all would be coal, crude or even diamonds in a million or so years were it not for the 'sanitary' concrete grave liners anyway."

I LOVE THIS!!!!

we be coal, crude or diamonds......ah yes, we shall......and even now we can..........

namaste,

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001


I think I'm for it. But where do they get the liquid nitrogen, and what does that cost us in pollution or energy expenditure?

Good joke, Jay!

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001



Sorry, but I just don't believe it would work - at least not by the simple process that the condensed article implies. Even if LN2 dehydrates tissue, all the fatty stuff would be left, along with dry bones and "jerky".

The only way to really get in the cycle is to be buried shallow, where you can become a part of the topsoil. Did anyone ever find a worm 6 feet down?

-- Anonymous, July 06, 2001


Hey why would cremation cause toxic gases? I think I'd still go for being dusted on my property. I did it for both my parents and it seems so clean and neat!....Kirk

-- Anonymous, July 06, 2001

Bury me under a tree!!!!!!! I want to be a part of the food chain!

Kim

-- Anonymous, July 06, 2001


I especially like the Amish way of burial. They wash and dress their own dead. They do not embalm, but rather have an old-fashioned "wake"; sitting up with the dead to make sure they are really dead. The funeral is within 2 days usually, before the body begins to smell. The coffin is a homemade pine box, and the burial takes place in the Amish graveyard. The male church members dig the grave. After the funeral, the male relatives lower the coffin into the grave, and about six or seven shovels are passed out. The grieving family gets to begin putting closure on their grief by actually placing the soil on their loved one. The process seems to me to be much more natural and healthy than modern funeral home processes.

-- Anonymous, July 07, 2001

Jim

You are sooooooooooo weird. Good thing. Makes me feel right at home.

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2001



Ok Jim

Now I saw your picture.No idea what that has to do with compost,though.(Big shit eatin' grin)

Here I was thinking tall(you said you were) skinny,dark and longish hair,maybe an earring,goatee,maybe a tatoo kind of guy.

What I see is a farm boy pro football player. Nick says you look just like a guy he knew who was a pro football player.

Geez. I actually had the nerve to tell you I was gonna whup your butt. What was I thinking? Yes,I have been, evidently, out of my mind.I will not threaten to kick your behind ever again,not unless I have Nick and my three ex football playing brothers to back me up.How's that sound to you,Sir James? I'm using sir from now on. Safer,I would think.

You are full of surprises.

I liked your picture.

BTW,Nick knows how to handle big boys like you,so you best not be messin' around with his wife no more, iffen' you know what's good for you.

I'm back,temporarily. And,in rare form. Tootles

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2001


OMG!

"It" stumbles out of the woods of KY and back onto our forum!

Good to see you back, sharon. We were thinking that maybe we'd have to send Guido and Vinnie out to rescue you. :-)

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2001


Yes, I'm built like a football player. But no, I don't like football.

The football coaches in high school were drooling over the chance to get me to play but I had no interest - I've never liked sports. I'd rather read or do art. Once they found that out about me they lost interest - which was a good thing cause I had no interest in them, either...

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2001


It? That would be Miss Bigfoot to you, sir. If you wouldn't mind,that is.Don't want to get you riled, you know.

I played basketball bc I was so tall and in a family of jocks.Didn't like it much.Couldn't dribble the ball to save my life.Floor was too far away.I could jump good tho.Best rebounder.I was springy. Played softball too and hated it. Don't like sports at all now.(Well,I do like horseracing.) Rest of family does. When I was at Penn State,on football weekends,I headed home.Could not take all the people. EEEEKKKK.

I was instead the brainy skinny little sister in the family who liked to read. Tomboy tho,too. I played tackle football with my huge brothers.They toughened me up. Of course,that might have something to do with me having such a bad back. That, and jumping out of trees (seeing how far up I could go and jump and not get hurt).

Fun. It's great, having brothers. I need to remember that, when I get in a conflict with one of them. Right?

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2001


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