Body composting promises a sustainable way of death

[sman]

Body composting promises a sustainable way of death

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/02/body-composting-promises-sustainable-way-death

SEATTLE—Death is not environmentally friendly. Cemeteries take up about 500 square kilometers in the United States. Embalming the dead consumes millions of liters of chemicals each year. And cremation takes large amounts of natural gas, producing plentiful greenhouse emissions. So why not take a cue from consumers who recycle their food waste into soil, and do the same to our mortal remains?

In May 2019, Washington became the first state to legalize natural organic reduction, or body composting, as an environmentally friendly alternative to existing mortuary options. The law will take effect on 1 May, and by early 2021, Recompose, a Seattle-based company, aims to offer commercial body composting.

As a first step, Lynne Carpenter-Boggs, a soil scientist at Washington State University, Pullman, and scientific adviser to Recompose, has conducted a pilot study with six donated bodies to test the process.