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It’s interesting how burial rituals change over time. Now, we’re talking about composting our bodies, which in some sense returns the remaining minerals back to

It’s interesting how burial rituals change over time. Now, we’re talking about composting our bodies, which in some sense returns the remaining minerals back to where they came from in the earth.

dyauspitr 2y ago
Which is what burial also accomplishes. What’s composting a human body outside of a burial?
- mos_basik 2y ago
  I think the difference is that if you go to a funeral home in the US and say "I'd like one burial, plain, no sugar" you will end up dressed in fancy clothes, filled with formaldehyde and a decent amount of sawdust, lying on soft polyester cushions and frills in a fancy varnished hardwood box with a lacquer finish and nearly airtight seal. This goes into the ground and then (I'm less to believe) largely doesn't change for decades. Whereas if you go to a human composting place and ask to be composted, you get packed into a tube with enough wood chips and straw to create the right carbon to nitrogen ratio and a few scoops of microbes and fungi and held at an optimum temperature and oxygen content until you turn into soil. Then you get delivered in the back of a pickup truck and hopefully someone uses you to plant a tree or something. Not to say that burial is always mutually exclusive with returning your nutrients to the earth - just that the default approach to burial these days isn't so good at it.
- defrost 2y ago
  Oddly enough, from 7 days ago: What is human composting and should it be legalised? https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-27/calls-to-legalise-human-composting-for-eco-friendly-burials/103677926 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-27/calls-to-legalise-hum... mos_basik mostly has it aside from bone grinding at some point, human skulls turning over in the market garden can be disconcerting and a nuisance for law enforcement so it's considered polite to remove and|or grind them.

It’s interesting how burial rituals change over time. Now, we’re talking about composting our bodies, which in some sense returns the remaining minerals back to where they came from in the earth.

dyauspitr 2y ago

Which is what burial also accomplishes. What’s composting a human body outside of a burial?

mos_basik 2y ago
I think the difference is that if you go to a funeral home in the US and say "I'd like one burial, plain, no sugar" you will end up dressed in fancy clothes, filled with formaldehyde and a decent amount of sawdust, lying on soft polyester cushions and frills in a fancy varnished hardwood box with a lacquer finish and nearly airtight seal. This goes into the ground and then (I'm less to believe) largely doesn't change for decades. Whereas if you go to a human composting place and ask to be composted, you get packed into a tube with enough wood chips and straw to create the right carbon to nitrogen ratio and a few scoops of microbes and fungi and held at an optimum temperature and oxygen content until you turn into soil. Then you get delivered in the back of a pickup truck and hopefully someone uses you to plant a tree or something. Not to say that burial is always mutually exclusive with returning your nutrients to the earth - just that the default approach to burial these days isn't so good at it.
defrost 2y ago
Oddly enough, from 7 days ago: What is human composting and should it be legalised? https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-27/calls-to-legalise-human-composting-for-eco-friendly-burials/103677926 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-27/calls-to-legalise-hum... mos_basik mostly has it aside from bone grinding at some point, human skulls turning over in the market garden can be disconcerting and a nuisance for law enforcement so it's considered polite to remove and|or grind them.