A Case for Composting? The Urban Death Project
By Lynne Bell
According to the Central Intelligence Agency's World Factbook, the global death rate for humans averages almost 8 per 1,000 people. And according to www.dyingwords.net-the blog where I dug up these cheery stats: “With over six billion people on the planet, that's about 55.3 million deaths per year-151,600 a day, 6,316 an hour, 105 a minute and nearly two per second.”
And as the blog so sensitively puts it: “That's a lot of bodies to dump.”
Which brings us to this week's topic, Gentle Reader: the Urban Death Project, which is making a case for composting human corpses.
Here in the land of wide open spaces, shrinking cemetery space may not be an issue, but according to Seattle architect, Katrina Spade-who founded the non-profit Urban Death Project-it's already a concern in big cities. Spade's project promises to alleviate that pressure space-wise, and is also touted as an environmentally-friendly alternative to other burial options, including cremation.
Spade is currently running a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the Urban Death Project. Money raised will pay for the design of a process that will turn a human body into soil through natural decomposition, within several weeks. And it also allows anyone who pledges at least $2,500 USD the chance to be one of the first in line to have their remains composted via Urban Death.
Spade told the CBC: “I like to think about what happens to a body at the Urban Death facility being a lot like leaf litter on the forest floor,” adding that each year in the U.S., in excess of one million bodies are buried with: “enough metal to build San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, enough wood to build 1,800 single family homes and enough carcinogenic embalming fluid to fill eight Olympic-sized swimming pools.”
And cremation's not off the hook, either, as Spade states that it emits massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Spade says her proposed process involves composting people in a three-storey “core,” which will be located in an urban centre. Mourners would “carry the deceased to the top of this core, lay the body in wood chips and sawdust, and begin the transformation of that person from human to soil.” Her system-based on the same methods used to compost livestock-will result in a four-to six-week process of decomposition, at which time the deceased's loved ones could return to collect some of the soil and use it “to grow a memorial garden or plant a tree.”
Predictably, opinions range wildly on this one-with many calling the entire process disrespectful and others hailing it as an environmental idea whose time has come. Although Spade has several hurdles to overcome-legal and financial ones, to name two-before her idea becomes reality; she says, “I feel like the people really want this option.”
It's difficult to say if or when Spade's idea will take off. Bodies have always been biodegradable, but there's a big leap between believing “Ashes to ashes; dust to dust” and actually embracing the process so intimately.
From death comes life
By Kelly Running
On a somber note… did you know that being buried has become extremely creative? In days past cremation and caskets have been the typical burial method in the West. I’m not really sure what they do other places in the world, but for the West it would appear things have begun changing.
The other day I came across an article by CBC News titled, “Urban Death Project: A case for composting your dead body.” Basically they had come across a Seattle-based non-profit called Urban Death Project who is on the crowd funding site, Kickstarter. Essentially their plan is to design a system that will help accelerate the natural decomposition of a body, turning it into soil within weeks.
And no the soil isn’t to be used for growing food, but the soil created out of composting the body could be used for something like a memorial garden or to plant a tree in.
After reading the article I was reminded that there’s been some other interesting ways to have your body taken care of after you die – yes, we talk about everything in our Seeing Things Differently column it would appear.
This includes something called a Bios Urn, which is a fully biodegradable urn which contains a seed, which is to grow into a tree transforming death into new life. This is somewhat similar to what the Urban Death Project is hoping to do but with one difference, the soil mix isn’t a compost of a body it is simply soil, while the ashes of a loved one are placed amongst the soil and seed.
The idea behind both is to create life from death and to speed up the process of decomposition, while minimizing the costs involved with the burial of someone. No need to buy a cemetery plot, no need to purchase a headstone, no need to really have an expensive funeral… for example caskets can cost a lot of money, while a Bios Urn – after a quick Google – is under $200.
Further research also pointed me to an eco-friendly cremation route developed in Saskatchewan, which is becoming popular across the country. At Gray’s Funeral Chapel in Prince Albert they’ve begun utilizing something called water cremation, a change not driven by environmental concerns but due to the Funeral Chapel having been asked to relocate to a heavy industrial area if wanting to set up a crematorium. Deciding on water cremation meant the business wouldn’t have to move, while it did come with a green benefit requiring very little energy compared to regular crematoriums.
The only problem with this one is that once dissolved the liquefied remains are treated and eventually released into the sewage system which I could see some people unhappy about. They might see it as disrespectful of the body… although I guess a regular cremation could technically be seen as that as well.
Ultimately, I personally really like the idea of the Bios Urn and the Urban Death Project, which both focus on green solutions while helping create life through soil or being part of a tree.
