Element Earth - A greener death?

A natural cemetery

When you walk there, the natural cemetery of Souché is a haven of peace and greenery. "We are really in a sort of vegetable bubble, where animals, insects, mammals and birds will be able to take refuge in peace," explains Amanda Clot, curator of the cemeteries of the city of Niort, in Poitou-Charentes.

This natural cemetery opened in 2014 and today accommodates 136 deceased. Here, nature and the dead coexist in peace. "Concrete vaults are prohibited, coffins are necessarily made of simple, unvarnished, untreated wood. The urns are in biodegradable materials. And cardboard coffins are also accepted."

Families are also asked to avoid preserving the body, and even to dress the deceased in natural and biodegradable fabrics. The simplicity of the procedures also allows for a cheaper burial or cremation.

The potential of human composting

In Belgium, Francis Busigny is even more radical: he militates for the possibility of being "humused", a term he prefers to "composted".

"It is in a composting mound that I want to finish," explains the creator of the "Metamorphosis" foundation.

In Belgium, composting a human being is not legal, so for the moment, in the pilot center, a demonstration is made on animal remains. He says he has been successful in the experiment for several decades. "Knowing that a year after my death, I will grow flowers, trees, why not leeks and give new life for the following ones, for all future generations", he rejoices.

To explore this alternative, the Walloon government has appointed a team of researchers from the Catholic University of Louvain. They therefore carried out two series of experiments on pigs, the results of which are not necessarily conclusive.

"What is important if we work with human remains is that it works 100% of the time. The constraints are such that we cannot achieve this objective and that we probably have to be a little more modest. "

Elsewhere in the world, an experiment was carried out with success, in the state of Washington in the United States, which in 2019 therefore became the first state to legalize human composting. But we are far from a mound of earth in nature, since composting is done with hi-tech equipment.

Source for infographic: https://www.humusation.org/

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