Jakarta –
Governor New York, United States (USA), Kathy Hochul, has legalized the composting of human remains. Human remains used as compost are said to be an alternative to green burial methods which are considered environmentally friendly.
Reported The Guardian, Wednesday (4/1/2023), there is a mechanism or method for composting dead bodies. One of them is that the body must be sent to a funeral service company that has been certified as an organic reduction facility.
The composting technique is not only that the bodies are placed on the compost pile free of charge, but that the bodies must be shipped to the company which is certified, therefore properly contained and ventilated and does not contain batteries, battery packs, power cells, plants radioactive or other radioactive devices.
In many cases, the body is placed in a reusable, semi-open container containing suitable bedding – wood chips, alfalfa or straw – ideal for allowing the microbes to do their job.
The final part of the process produces one cubic meter of nutrient dense soil, the equivalent of 36 bags of soil which can then be used as fertilizer.
“Anything we can do to keep people away from concrete slabs, luxury caskets and embalming, we must do and support,” said Michelle Menter, director of New York’s Greensprings Natural Cemetery Preserve.
Meanwhile, the composting process has received criticism from the New York State Catholic Conference. According to him, the composting process doesn’t give respect because of the remains.
“The exact process of returning leftover vegetables to the earth may not be suitable for the human body,” said Dennis Poust, executive director of the New York State Catholic Conference.
On the other hand, supporters of the Order of the Good Death urged the governor to sign and offered a set of colored decorative cards reading “My Compost” and “I Want to Be a Tree” to send to the governor.
Washington became the first state to legalize human composting in 2019, followed by Colorado and Oregon in 2021, then Vermont and California in 2022. New York’s law, A382, passed this summer.
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(zap/rfs)
