In New York, composting human bodies as an alternative to burials
A coffin turns bodies into compost.
Loop Biotech/AFP
Text by: Loubna Anaki Follow
2 mins
What if the human body was turned into compost?
It is an option offered in the United States to families wishing an alternative to traditional funerals.
A proposal presented as ecological and also more economical.
Publicity
Read more
From our correspondent in New York,
New York becomes the sixth US state to legalize this procedure presented as an alternative to burial or cremation.
Human compost may sound weird.
The process has several names: recomposition, humusation, organic natural reduction, but the simplest is to speak of human compost.
And that's exactly what you can imagine: when a person dies, the body is left to decompose to obtain compost, organic matter.
But this is done through a very complex process.
First, the bodies are entrusted to specialist funeral directors.
They are placed in receptacles with wood shavings, straw and flowers if the family wishes.
Only biodegradable things.
Air must circulate to promote humidity and the work of microbes and bacteria.
Once the tissues are broken down, the bones are reduced to powder.
It takes about a month to get one cubic meter of compost.
The soil obtained is then either scattered in a cemetery, or given to the family who can use it to grow trees in the family garden, for example.
►Also read:
Washington State legalizes “human compost”
A solution for the future
This is a new technique, legalized in 2019 in Washington State.
And environmentalists believe it's a solution for the future, because it produces less CO2.
Indeed, cremation produces more than 233 kg of CO2 and burials 800 kg against only less than 20 kg for compost.
The difference is huge.
In addition, during burials, the products used to embalm the bodies before being buried are released into the ground and can create long-term pollution.
Besides the environment, there is also the cost.
In New York, for example, a plot of land for a grave costs between $5,000 and $19,000.
Even a million dollars in midtown Manhattan.
Cremation costs an average of $4,000.
For its part, the compost can cost between 4,000 and 7,000 dollars.
But many Americans are very reluctant.
The New York State Catholic Conference believes that this technique is more suitable, “
for vegetable peelings and eggshells
”.
We will therefore have to wait to see if this technique becomes as natural and popular as cremation.
►Also listen: In Russia, the promise of eternal life
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
United States
Environment
Company