Before one dies, most of the final wish is to either be buried or cremated. But in today's setting for those living in Washington, a third option has risen which, rather than pushing up daisies, will instead help them flourish.
Due to the growing shortage of burial space and the damage caused by the current funerals to the environment, humans are to be composted instead. If this move becomes successful, this could be adopted in the U.K. which, with around 78 percent of people wanted to be cremated after death, sees a staggering 150,000 tons of carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere.
In the U.S., since some cities no longer allow extensions of burial grounds, the population of people opting to become ashes has increased.
Over the last four years, cremations have overtaken burials dumping around 354,300 tons of carbon emissions each year.
Some studies have revealed that the energy used to cremate one body is somehow the same as the monthly home-energy demands of an average American.
According to Nora Menkin, executive director of the Seattle-based People's Memorial Association, the average cremation takes up about the same amount of energy and has the same emissions as about two tanks of gas in an average car.
As a US company, whose founder led the fight to see America's first above ground decomposition law passed, is set to be the world's first corpse composting service next year.
The creator and CEO of Recompose, Katrina Spade, says for around £4,500 the company will be able to turn bodies into compost and return the soil to their family.
Spade came up with the idea 13 years ago when she began to question her mortality.
According to Spade, she will give back what she has left to the planet, which has protected and supported her whole life. She also added that the idea of composting dead bodies is logical and beautiful.
The study which Spade conducted shows the process generates around a cubic yard of nutrient-rich soil from the human body.
The process requires an eighth of the energy used for cremation and saves one metric ton of carbon dioxide per person. The process utilizes lesser space than burial as well.
After the 30-day recomposing process of the body, this will be spread on a garden or help grow a tree, just like spreading the cremated ashes.
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Lynne Carpenter-Boggs, professor of sustainable and organic agriculture at Washington State University, was recruited by Spade to prove human bodies can be securely composted.
Boggs's previous work, which focused on helping farms compost dead livestock, had caught Spade's attention.
According to Boggs when she compared her previous work with farm animals with humans, she felt like it was a little too natural method. She added that it feels very agricultural and most people are not familiar with how composting works. She uttered it did not seem like anybody would ever accept it as a method.
Professor Boggs was provided with six bodies who volunteered before their deaths to become human guinea pigs for the trial.
Each body is placed in a long barrel like container on a bed special plant materials, which includes alfalfa, straw grass, and wood chips, with another layer on top.
Carbon and nitrogen provide energy to powerful thermophilic microbes, which breaks down the body, once the door is closed
The containers are capsized occasionally while the airflow is tweaked as the heat rises inside the chamber up to 55C- the same temperature recommended by Heston Blumenthal in cooking meat.
Moreover, Professor Boggs added that most of the activity is by bacteria, which do not have mouths like the larger organism, and these bacteria release enzymes outside their bodies. The mixture of acid and enzyme primarily decompose things.
Professor Boggs continued that both cells and molecules come apart and those same bacteria are able to feed on the very small molecules that have been released from the chemical process.
Once the process has been completed, the result is mixed the same with potting compost.
Plans were disclosed for Recompose's 18,500-square-foot after facility in Seattle's South of Downtown neighborhood in November.
According to the company, it will be the first facility to provide a sustainable option for after-death care.
Recompose said that the core of the new facility's space is a modular system containing approximately 75 vessels, stacked and arranged to demarcate space for memorial ceremonies and rituals.
Growing climate change concerns have been an important factor in so many people, who express their interest in the service before its launch.
Thousands of people have signed up to receive the newsletter of Recompose which more expected following the law's enactment on May 1.
Despite the fanfare surrounding human composting, British experts have raised doubts over the development.
The manager of the Natural Death Centre Charity, Rosie Inman-Cook, said she will not believe unless she actually sees it.
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