Human composting ??

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Primrose
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A rather delicate topic but perhaps one worthy of serious debate - and I apologise if it feels too sensitiv for anybody in our forum.

?I was listening to a news commentary on climate change earlier this morning in which the benefits of food composting were mentioned. Then the rather sensitive and delicate topic of "human composting on death" cropped up and I wondered how many of us have really given any serious thought to this as one of the means of helping to reduce the impact ofclimate change.

As gardeners we all recognise the benefits of the composting process. . I wonder how many of us would seriously opt to choose this route at the end of our days if some serious health and environmental parameters were put in place to make the process available.?

I think going forward climate change may force us to review many of the traditional processes which have governed our lives to date. it was not so very long ago in historical terms that cremation in this country became a new way of dealing with the departed.

We live in uncertain times with the current shortage of key elements which feature in our daily lives, including energy consumption, and the impact of climate change will mean rethinking a whole host of traditional activities . Does anybody believe this would be a viable option for the planet for the future?

When I mentioned to Mr Primrose after the news item that this might be an option I would consider for myself when the time came he replied. . " OK, but not in our back garden !"

Seriously, would anybody opt to go for this option?
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oldherbaceous
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Not a difficult topic for me, Primrose, but not having listened to the programme, i,m not sure how practical it would be.
I think the bodies would have to go through a big macerator, or the bones would take forever to break down…if this was the case, it would be using a fuel of some sort….
Probably be better to do shallower, mass graves and plant trees on them, so the tree roots would benefit….
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Primrose
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Unfortunately I missed the end of the discussion on this - it was on BBC Breakfast yesterday, so I've no idea if this part of the process was mentioned. I think there would be a lot of practical as well as emotional problems to be overcome.

Cremation of course does use energy. I don't know whether this is done as a bulk process for everybody at the end of every day .

A couple of years ago, on a slightly different topic of disposal, I was able to have a tour of a large council waste disposal site and by various processes, the gases which were given off by the mass waste were turned into energy which was capable of supplying power to a large housing estate, but I'm not sure whether human disposal would ever be capable of returning similar benefits to the environment.

I suppose burials are already a long term form of composting but the coffins alone take so long to decompose that the whole process is greatly slowed up.
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Geoff
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Sounds a possibility. I believe when you are gone you are gone, the only immortality is the memories you leave with other people, but that's a different debate. It means I am not that fussed about what happens to my body. I have carried a donor card for many years and anybody is welcome to any of the bits I haven't worn out, feels less likely each year that anything would be useful! Cremation with scattering and no memorial has always been the favoured option but it must contribute to global warning so perhaps a biomass boiler would be better.
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My OH and I have donated our bodies to a medical school which apparently has no age limit for the 'gifts'. Otherwise, cremation and scattered anywhere. Presumably the ash will fertilise the ground somewhere, but I do like your idea of a biomass boiler, Geoff!
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I’ve no problem with what happens to me when I cock my toes up but I’ve two daughters who probably will we have my wife’s and middle daughters in the living room while we make our minds up we’re to scatter them my wife always said throw them in the Mersey but after witnessing this while out fishing one day and getting my eyes full of grit or ash I’m not keen on that
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Primrose
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I scattered my parents' ashes up on the Sussex Downs overlooking the sea on one of their favourite walks one really windy spring morning. It never occurred to me thwt I should have gone protected with a pair of goggles. Nobody warns you about these unexpected hazards. I'm not sure how many minerals in human ashes are returned to the soil.

I understand that in some early Indian tribal cultures ,the dead were left out mostly unclothed on tall wooden platforms , for the vultures to eat, where in due course I suppose the remains were digested and then deposited back onto the ground so it was still a natural speeded up composting process. I,m not sure whether in this neck of the woods the many kites would perform the same process although they perform a pretty good job on roadkill.
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I'm inclined to burial, without the casket or just wicker or cardboard as think just let the soil critters do their thing. The bones will stay but I don't think old bones will contribute too much to global warming, unlike the crematorium. The other alternative mentioned is the leaving the body on a tall tower & the big prey birds remove the flesh then the bones are broken up & put in a jar which is what families visit to remember. Maybe there is alternative to vultures or a business opportunity for someone to have a huge enclosure with towers & vultures. I've seen vultures in a zoo so vultures so they can live in the UK but I'd expect planning permission for that wouldn't be easy.
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Stephen
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It isn't a delicate subject as far as I am concerned. I think avoiding the subject is weak; we all know we are going to die and need to face upto this fact. It is better for our heirs and successors.
For myself, I'm quite happy to have a cremation or a woodland burial in a willow coffin (it could be cardboard as far as I am concerned); the most imporant part of the matter is that it satisfies those who will need to organise it and miss me.

I do rather think we, as a nation, are too sentimental about deceased bodies. We should value the memories but the remains are not really important to me. I'd prefer to look at a photograph or read a letter they wrote than to visit a grave or memorial.
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Always said jokingly to Er Indoors dump me on the compost pile, perhaps could be a reality.
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Shallot Man
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Colin2016 wrote:Always said jokingly to Er Indoors dump me on the compost pile, perhaps could be a reality.


My late Father always said the dung-heap would suite him fine.
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Primrose
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I think gardeners have a greater affinity with the soil and the whole composting cycle so they,re probably not as shocked by the idea as a "townie population". With all the medications that some members of the population are having to consume , if it ever comes to mining for mineral rights I. think such venues would have to be off limits!

From a soil pollution point of view I,m not sure how such chemicals building up in a body would affect long term soil pollution. I assume such elements entering the sewage/water systems are probabky chemicalled filtered out in some way but "cleansing" the soil would presumably be a harder task.
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oldherbaceous
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I think gardeners are the best at everything but, I might be a little bias…. :)
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