Washington state to allow human composting of remains

[avengerspoilerer]

https://fox23maine.com/news/nation-world/washington-is-1st-state-to-allow-composting-of-human-bodies

Frankly, just as I can bury animals on my property, I want the right to bury my loved ones on my property without the use of a vault or a coffin on someone else's land.

The body farm in TN has shown bodies decompose far faster exposed to the elements.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Sounds good.

 

[easyas123]

My husband have a continuing conversation going about a 5 acre parcel we have next to our farm. I think it would be a neat place to have as a "natural" burial ground. No chemicals, no markers. Just a pleasant park-like setting w/ some natural landscaping.
Admittedly, we are anit-funeral folks. No religious or moral reason - we just think it's a long drawn out process that costs to much. Of course, we've been to several long & drawn out multi day family funerals in the past few years...one postponed due to fighting over the costs, that just sat wrong with us.

 

[JaxDad]

I saw a story about this place on a travel show...
https://fac.utk.edu/

 

[amcnj]

The green burial concept has expanded, but is still not real common. I believe there are only two such cemeteries (notice a cemetery is still involved) in my state. I would definitely be a customer of the composting alternative. I hope this expands, and rather quickly as I am not getting any younger!

 

[Hikergirl]

I'm all for it. My plan is to be cremated and my ashes buried on our property under my favorite tree.
If by the time I'm dead this is an option here I'd rather do that and plant a new tree.

 

[barkley]

https://fox23maine.com/news/nation-world/washington-is-1st-state-to-allow-composting-of-human-bodies

Frankly, just as I can bury animals on my property, I want the right to bury my loved ones on my property without the use of a vault or a coffin on someone else's land.

The body farm in TN has shown bodies decompose far faster exposed to the elements.

to bury on private property here in washington is next to impossible. it can only be done at an 'established cemetary' that must be run by a corporation. even if you jump through all the hoops and expenses to get deemed one your local city or county can have prohibitions against it.

super costly-i looked into it b/c i have 10 acres and the idea is appealing to me.

 

[yoopermom]

You can definitely be buried on your own property here in Michigan, because my DH wants to be buried on our current property and has looked into it. NOT ME . So, I guess it depends on who dies first....

Terri

 

[ronandannette]

Burials on private property (with a legal, government-issued burial permit) has never not been allowed here. Having lived here all my life I don't know of anybody who has done it (burial I mean). There are also probably some rules or regulations about methods. With the mobility of our populations these days, I'm not sure I think it's a great idea. Selling and moving or more to the point, buying and living at a home with somebody buried there is a little weird.

 

[EMom]

On our family land, we have relatives buried from the 30s and 40s. I don’t think they asked permission. They just did it. In the oil boom of the 30s, a camp full of workers grew up across the road from my grandparents’ house. My mother said there’s more than one of those workers buried there.

 

[kimblebee]

to bury on private property here in washington is next to impossible. it can only be done at an 'established cemetary' that must be run by a corporation. even if you jump through all the hoops and expenses to get deemed one your local city or county can have prohibitions against it.

super costly-i looked into it b/c i have 10 acres and the idea is appealing to me.

Not being obtuse, but how would the government know if you just took Aunt Betsy, and a shovel, and went out to your back acres?

 

[tvguy]

Not being obtuse, but how would the government know if you just took Aunt Betsy, and a shovel, and went out to your back acres?

Well, they may not know for years, but there is always a slim change in the future someone would dig there and rattle Betsy's bones, triggering an investigation. And at least hear, hospitals and coroners will only release bodies to agencies licensed to handle bodies.

 

[kimblebee]

Well, they may not know for years, but there is always a slim change in the future someone would dig there and rattle Betsy's bones, triggering an investigation. And at least hear, hospitals and coroners will only release bodies to agencies licensed to handle bodies.

Yeah, I thought about that. I’m sure there’s a paper trail for every dead body. Unless, maybe, Aunt Betsy dies at home? I guess there’d be a will and estate and closing bank accounts and so on.

I wonder if it’s possible to die and not leave a paper trail..

 

[Deb & Bill]

It's kind of a slippery slope to Soylent Green at this point.

 

[ronandannette]

The green burial concept has expanded, but is still not real common. I believe there are only two such cemeteries (notice a cemetery is still involved) in my state. I would definitely be a customer of the composting alternative. I hope this expands, and rather quickly as I am not getting any younger!

This was proposed as an environmentally responsible alternative about a decade ago but it never really took off.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alkaline_hydrolysis_(body_disposal)

 

[Julie's Haircut]

I once built a small raised rectangular garden in my mother's front yard, about 3' x 6'. Before I planted anything my mother said the neighbors will think I'm going to bury her there.

 

[georgina]

Pete Seeger used to sing this Lee Hayes song 'In Dead Earnest' -

If I should die before I wake,
All my bone and sinew take
Put me in the compost pile
To decompose me for a while.

Worms, water, sun will have their way,
Returning me to common clay
All that I am will feed the trees
And little fishes in the seas.

When radishes and corn you munch,
You may be having me for lunch
And then excrete me with a grin,
Chortling, "There goes Lee again."

'Twill be my happiest destiny
To die and live eternally.

 

[js]

I read the article but I dont see any mention of the bones.

 

[StargazingMaster]

What about the so-called liquid cremation legal in about 20 other states?

 

[ronandannette]

What about the so-called liquid cremation legal in about 20 other states?

That's the Alkaline Hydrolysis I mentioned upthread. Seriously, knowing even the bare minimum about the process would likely put most people off ever considering it but everybody has different "ick" tolerance.

As it is, the decision between the more conventional methods of disposition (burial or cremation) almost always comes down to a personal, visceral reaction to either fire or small, dark spaces. Finances and ideology does come into it but really, the entire time I was in funeral service, people who simply couldn't tolerate the idea of one, chose the other.