translated from Spanish: The revolutionary law that allows to convert human corpses into fertilizer for gardens

“Dust you are and to dust you shall return”: a maxim that is has repeated for centuries as a way to define what happens to our body once just life.
However, in the State of Washington, United States, decided to change a bit this approach: instead of powder, the human body can become perfect compost for gardens and crops in general.
I.e. that human remains may be the foundations of a garden flourished at the gates of a house or can serve to feed the roots of the trees.
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The idea, which was approved last week by the State Senate and is awaiting the signature of the Governor Jay Inslee for its final approval, is to become an alternative to burial or cremation, composting using a process that lasts for 30 days and that the ca daver is converted into natural fertilizer.
An idea that increasingly has more followers in the United States as a way to contribute to the environment after death. And above all, do so legally, because in many countries, it is forbidden to dispose of human remains by outside cemeteries or burial sites authorized.
It is estimated that more than half of the bodies are cremated in USA and not buried as it was traditionally. But, how does the way that degrades the body with this method, compared to the process that occurs naturally with a buried body change? And how it can be beneficial to the environment?
Ecological ways to die
Agree to the forensic anthropologist Daniel Wescott, the human body takes it months degrade in the soil.
And it all depends on the quality of the soil. In a dry environment, the body may end up mummified. In wetter, a face can degrade up to bones in a few weeks.
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“If you have a good amount of activity of bacteria, in a month the human body should already be degraded in the land”, said Wescott to the BBC.
But is something that increasingly becomes less: more than half of the bodies of those who died in 2016 in United States were cremated, not buried.
And those who are buried are inside wooden coffins, which slows down the degradation process.
For this reason, there are people who have spent years thinking about it should extend in other ways be deposited underground.
“Nature knows how to transform our bodies ashore. Fertilizer”, he told the BBC girl Schoen, one of the promoters of the idea of turning the human body into composting.
2035 it is estimated that only 15% of the burials will take place in the traditional way.” What is more important, at least for me, is that my body is able to give back to the Earth what she did for me when I was alive and, through that process, creating new sources of life,”added.
But how to do it?
Perhaps the biggest promoter of this new U.S. law is Katrina Spade, the founder of the Riel company, based in the city of Seattle, in the West of the country.
Is it that points out that you can convert the human body into a fertile compost in just 30 days.
“What they do is simply speed up the natural process of decomposition,” explained Nora Menkin, Director People completo Memorial, a non-profit that provides funeral services to people without resources in Seattle.
The method of Riel, which has been treated by researchers at the University of Washington, is to follow the normal process of composting, but in the case of the human body is added to a mixture of wood chips and other biodegradable ingredients.
What makes microbes and thermophilic bacteria – i.e., that heat – like to do their work and accelerate the decomposition.
The entire process takes place at 55 C, ending also kill potential bacteria responsible for the spread of diseases.
Some activists of this type of burials indicate that human bodies can continue in the gardens of his family. The result is a fertilizer that can be used safely, which is the ultimate reason why many people support this way of treating the bodies after death.
“We have all this energy that often is burned or sealed in coffins that we can use to help that life will continue,” Menkin said.
Meanwhile, Schoen clarifies that he supported this option because they want your body contribute to the environment.
“Concerns about the environment are very important to me and play a central role in the decisions I take on a daily basis,” he said.
Expensive… For now
2035, the United States Association of funeral homes (NFDA, for its acronym in English) anticipates that only 15% of the burials will be of traditional type.
However, experience can be costly.
“It is a fact that most of the people point out that (the process of turning the body into composting) is a costly option,” Menkin said.
“Right now might cost about US$ 5,500. It is not a project cheap”, he added.
Cremation remains the most economical method to dispose the mortal remains of the human body. The average cost of a traditional funeral is around US$ 7,000. However, a cremation becomes only the $1,000.
For now, ecological funerals are not very popular.
In addition to that there are ethical qualms about this way to dispose of the remains of what was a human being.
“The bodies will be cared for in a respectable manner?, we may in the future be able to remember them, to remember that they formed part of a community? “These questions will always be when insists on changing the way in which we buried those who die”, said the professor at the University of California, David Sloane.
However, both Menkin and Schoen believe that the idea is to convince people that although “is different, isn’t bad”.
“What happens is that here in the U.S. no one wants to talk about it. “We don’t speak enough about what means death or death in general”, said Schoen.

Original source in Spanish

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