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Composting is a new way of ecologically pure burial of the dead

 
, medical expert
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
 
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02 October 2014, 10:00

In many cultures and religions, it is customary to keep the bodies of the deceased by embalming or giving ground, but some environmentalists have proposed so-called composting of the deceased, which will replace the burial practices that are now used more naturally.

If you look from the environmental side, with the current methods of burial of the dead (in a coffin or an underground crypt), a rather extensive space is occupied, unstable materials (for example, wood, steel, etc.) are used. This is especially true for densely populated regions, where the land belongs to limited resources.

Also during the burial process auxiliary materials (flowers, clothing, etc.) are often used, which are initially extracted from the outside world, are properly prepared, transported, but after the funeral, almost all additional materials disappear from the lives of relatives and relatives of the deceased. At first glance, such reasoning can be criticized, but with a more detailed study it is clear that the process of traditional funerals requires a huge amount of resources. For example, in the United States of America, more than one and a half million hectares of trees and more than 90 tons of steel are used each year to make coffins. About 3.5 million liters of formaldehyde is used annually during embalming, and cremation requires fossil fuels.

Even after death, the body continues to provide a carbon footprint, and suggestions have been made on ecological methods of burial. For example, it was suggested to use more ecological materials for the production of coffins or to make a portrait of the deceased from his ashes, but a new project called "Urban death" implies a closure of the life cycle of a person on earth.

The author of the project was Katrina Spade, who named her work as a new system of accurate and reliable burial of the deceased by a new method of composting.

Katrine Spade's work implies a safe and reliable means of burying bodies in soil-building materials, which will then be used for estates, gardens or the needs of nearby farms. The Spade project completely changes the generally accepted practice of pollution and wastefulness of the environment.

A new type of burial in the base contains a step-by-step device that acts as a large-scale composter, in which the transformation of the body, together with sawdust, chips and other materials into concentrated fertilizer, simultaneously serves as a place for the grief of loved ones.

First, the body of the deceased is placed at the top of the composter and covered with chips, sawdust, etc., where during a month there is a process of decomposition and settling, after which the mass turns into a concentrated fertilizer.

Relatives and relatives can pick up the fertilizer themselves and use it for their gardens or suburban areas. As a result, the deceased relative seems to be always near.

Katrina Spade received $ 80,000 to develop her project this summer, which she received from Echoing Green, and is now fully engaged in creating her first sample in Seattle. After the prototype of Spade successfully starts, she will look for a place to launch the full version of the project "Urban death" and will help all who wish to commit the last "green" affair in this life.

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