EFE
New York
The state of New York is about to pass a law allowing the composting of human corpses as an alternative to burial or cremation, pending only approval by the state’s governor, Kathy Hochul.
The project has already been approved by the state Senate and Assembly in the last session, but is still being reviewed by Hochul; Once approved, it will make New York the sixth state to offer that alternative to its residents, after Washington, Colorado, Oregon, Vermont and California.
This new alternative is known as “natural organic reduction” and is designed so that human remains serve as natural fertilizer for forests or other lands for those with a high ecological awareness.
The defenders of this law – which already has the opposition of the Catholic Church, considering that it takes away dignity from the treatment of the corpse – are pressuring Hochul to speed up the process, which would translate into a special permit for cemeteries to treat the corpses.
The Funeral Directors Association has also opposed it, in its case for considering the monopoly that cemeteries will have “unfair”: “We should be able to offer it to our consumers in the same way that anyone else could,” he told the Times Union newspaper. the president of the Association, David Parente.
Those who defend the project argue that there is a growing interest in ecological alternatives to burial, to avoid coffins made of non-biodegradable materials or, in the case of cremation, processes that involve generating 200 kilograms or more of carbon dioxide, which equivalent to driving hundreds of miles in a car.
In this composting process, the carcass is placed inside a special container on top of wood chips, which is also covered with more chips and alfalfa, and is naturally broken down by microbes.
In some cases, flowers from relatives are included.
The container is then hermetically sealed while the temperature and humidity inside the container are regularly monitored.
The decomposition process can take a month and a half and costs about $7,000, according to Recompose, a Seattle company that offers this service.
According to their page, the composting donated by their customers supports the ongoing revitalization of wetlands, riparian habitats, native plants, and vulnerable wildlife species.
Some families take a small portion of the compost as a keepsake, the same as ashes.
Posted on October 13, 2022
