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Washington State Is The First US State To Legalize Human Composition

Law & Order

Washington State Is The First US State To Legalize Human Composition

Law & Order

The Governor of Washington State, Jay Inslee has now legalized the use of a human composition for organic production by signing the legislation. Jay Inslee is widely known as an eco-friendly governor, and he took this move to reduce the carbon emission from cremations and burials.

The new law will come into effect from May 2020. The citizens of Washington State now provided with a choice, to decide on the dead bodies of their close ones to convert them into appropriate soil and use them for gardening through the re-composition process.

This is an alternative technique for cremations and burials of bodies and a sensible option in regions where there is a land scarcity for graveyards.

After the re-composition process is completed, the soil of their closed ones will be handed over to their concerned member, which they can use for growing vegetables, trees, or planting flowers.

 Seattle based People’s Memorial Association, Executive director, Nora Menkin responded to this news by saying, “It gives meaning and use to what happens to our bodies after death.”

Supporters believe this is an environmentally friendly process and an alternative method to cremation. The cremation process releases a lot of carbon dioxide and other particles in the air, while in the traditional burial process, bodies drain their blood, high formaldehyde and other chemicals that might pollute groundwater and are put into the durable coffin that uses land.

The Seattle Democrat Senate Jamie Pedersen says the traditional burial process put a lot of weight on the earth and the environment at your last journey. He further mentioned that his neighbor Katrina Spade influenced the legislation. Katrina Spade an architecture graduate student of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She started learning about the funeral industry and came up with a new plan of human composition. She picked the method and noticed that the wood chips, straw, and alfalfa formed a mixture of carbon and nitrogen that increases natural decomposition at the time when the dead body is put in a temperature- vessel controlled by moisture and rolled.

Katrina Spade established a firm that will be the first in the US to offer the service. She informed Agence France-Presse that “Recomposition offers an alternative to embalming and burial or cremation that is natural, safe, sustainable, and will result in significant savings in carbon emissions and land usage.”

She was attracted to the process ten years back after becoming 30 years old and thought about her own mortality.

How does Process work?

The dead body will be put in a container of hexagonal steel filled with alfalfa, straw, and wood chips. The hexagonal steel container will be closed, and the body starts decomposing naturally within a month. This forms two wagons of soil. The soil is rich in nutrient and similar to one purchased at a local store, appropriate for vegetable gardening.

Katrina Spade said everything along with teeth and bones will be re-composed, and it is all possible due to the system that is designed.

Sweden has legalized decomposition of human and in UK natural burials are legalized. In the natural burial process, the dead body without a casket is buried, or they make use of biodegradable coffin to burry.

Mary Morgan

Mary Morgan holds a double degree in Journalism and Mass Communication and had experienced with various occupations such as news writer, content editor, reporter, technical analysis and a lot more. But she is passionate for news editing. From last 2 years, she regularly curates news articles for us in a different niche.

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