Human composting
I’d actually just like to be chucked onto a compost heap and left to break down. None of this poncing about sending me off to have a company do it. Composting happens for free, after all. Just heave me in, wait a few weeks and put me on the veggies next time around. I’m quite into the idea of feeding next year’s tomatoes once I’m done.
There’s a quote in the article that struck me as quite odd though:
“The New York State Bishops oppose this bill because composting is a process typically used for household or agricultural waste, and does not provide the respect due to bodily remains,” the Catholic Conference told the Catholic Courier newspaper at the time.
Firstly, what “respect” is due to “bodily remains” anyhow? Household dust contains a significant proportion of “bodily remains”. What happens to that? What happens to nail clippings, skin cells that are shed in the shower, removed body hair, amputated body parts or removed organs? Why should the vehicle for someone’s consciousness be somehow “special” once that consciousness is no longer present?
And just because composting might typically be used for household or agricultural waste doesn’t make it unsuitable for the disposal of corpses. Have they never heard of a midden? Do they not know what happens to lots of non-compostable waste to generate electricity?
Burying corpses doesn’t scale. Burning them is really environmentally unfriendly. It’s time we did something else. Though perhaps not Soylent Green 😀
