Human composting is becoming legal, but is it moral?

Green burials have been legalized in five states amid opposition from the Catholic Church.

Commentary Editor

The phrase “human composting” is not something you hear everyday. It is otherwise known as the “green burial” option that has emerged in five states so far. Washington, Vermont, Oregon, Colorado and now California have legalized green burials.

You are likely asking yourself what exactly a green burial is. “The process involves placing human remains in a steel box with biodegradable materials, which help the body naturally decompose,” according to Pew Charitable Trusts. Soil is produced during the process which is then given to the family of the deceased. The family may use the soil to spread in their flowerbeds or grow potted plants.

courtesy wikimedia commons Five states have legalized green burials as of now.

Recompose, a death care company based in Seattle, describes the process in-depth, “Recompose places each body into a stainless steel vessel along with wood chips, alfalfa, and straw. Microbes that naturally occur on the plant material and on and in our bodies power the transformation into soil. Over the next 30 days, everything inside the vessel breaks down thanks to natural decomposition. The soil is then removed from the vessel, screened for non-organic items such as hip implants, tested for safety, and allowed to dry and cure for an additional two to four weeks. Once the soil is complete after six to eight weeks, families can either take it home for use on trees and plants, or donate it to conservation efforts. Each body creates one cubic yard of soil amendment.”

Green burials are more eco-friendly and sustainable than other conventional burial practices. When the deceased are prepared for a viewing at a funeral, they are injected with embalming fluid to keep them from decomposing so they retain a life-like appearance. Embalming fluid is extremely toxic to the environment and to us, requiring bodies to be encased in steel and concrete if they are buried in the ground to prevent toxins from leaking into groundwater systems and the surrounding earth. Embalmers and grounds-

courtesy wikimedia commons Green burials are eco-friendly and more sustainable than conventional burial practices and cremation.

ones without harming our environment and cluttering the ground with non-biodegradable caskets. We can conserve our natural resources, reduce carbon emissions and at best with this proposed composting/fertilizing method, which is more appropriate for vegetable trimmings and eggshells than for human bodies.”

keepers are also at risk of contracting blood and neurological diseases as well as cancer from the toxic nature of the chemicals.

Cremation is no better for the environment. Cremating the deceased requires the burning of fossil fuels and generates air pollutants that are harmful to the surrounding environment and humans. “Cremation requires a lot of fuel, and it results in millions of tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year,” according to National Geographic.

Green burials are not new in any capacity. People were buried in the ground long before embalming fluids were invented. Allowing the body to decompose naturally and return to the earth is the most sustainable method of caring for our deceased loved work on restoring the environment if more people switch to green burials.

The Catholic Church opposes the practice of green burials, saying that the process fails to show “respect for the body of the deceased.” Executive Director for the California Catholic Conference Kathleen Domingo said the process “reduces the human body to simply a disposable commodity.”

The New York State Catholic Conference shared a statement in response to the human composting bill awaiting approval in the state. It said, “While not everyone shares the same beliefs with regard to the reverent and respectful treatment of human remains, we believe there are a great many New Yorkers who would be uncomfortable

The green burial option would not take away from the celebration of the life that was lost or dehumanize the process. The ritual a family uses to process and cope with death could incorporate green burials. What is the difference between receiving the ashes of the deceased versus the soil? If anything, receiving the soil that was produced from a loved one could help with the emotional and spiritual connection of knowing that new life will grow from that person.

Society is evolving and so is the workplace. It’s time to stop laboring over jobs for 40 hours a week.

Student Writer

As Americans, 40-hour work weeks are the standard if not the minimum amount of time spent on the job. With the majority of daytime hours spent at the office, we often leave family time and household duties for the leftover scraps of time in the evenings. Sometimes, the typical American lifestyle leaves me to wonder if we work to live or live to work.

courtesy wikimedia commons There are approximately 70 companies and organizations participating in the U.K. trial.

the hours spent working have any effects on productivity? These are the questions that leaders in countries like the United Kingdom, Sweden and Spain have asked, and the results of their trials would shock workaholics everywhere. In fact, 95% of U.K. comFord pioneered the two-day weekend with his implementation of the 40-hour work week. While this creation has tokenized the American worklife, I think that the evolution of our economy beyond assembly line labor would justify a shift. Our modern commerce system seems to have secrets from even the most expert economists, as if we’ve poured so much of ourselves into it that it now has a mind of its own. Since it’s no longer a machine with gears that we have to manually turn, then is it necessary to actively contribute to our economy for 40 hours a week, if we’re even contributing at all? And even if we are, why must we live so far outside of ourselves and give so much to a system that has nothing to do with basic human nature and needs? Humans created the system of commerce thousands of years ago in order to make their lives easier, not to create a new life entirely.

A four-day work week might allow people to take up a hobby, something only known to retirees and children. Nowadays, a full-time employee with a hobby might even be called a Renaissance Man (or Woman). So much of modern life is focused on productivity, achieving career goals and fulfilling the expectations of having a family while retaining sanity and maybe even being happy. Is simply striving for happiness considered to be admirable… would it even be considered a valid goal? I think that experimenting with a four-day work week would be valuable in determining where our priorities lie in our modern society and perhaps even shifting those priorities towards existing as humans rather than employees. Then, perhaps we could stop living to work and start working to live.

In some ways, the pandemic improved the lack of work/life balance. In the long run, however, I think it’s safe to say that the effects of a global shutdown disrupted that balance even further. No longer could people leave their work at the office, because their home became their office. Work life permeated home life, and families became separated not just by the walls of their homes, but the different headspaces they began to live in as well. Now that we’ve allowed work into our homes, it’s begun to take root. Early morning and even weekend Zoom calls have brought the office to employees wherever they are… oh, joy.

Does increasing time on the job lead to increased productivity? Would decreasing panies who participated in the trial have found that working for four days instead of five has had no negative impacts on productivity and has even led to better collaboration among employees. These results lead me to wonder about the other ways in which we could be intentional about spending our time and perhaps reassess whether we truly value quality over quantity.

The weekend as we know it wasn’t always two days of rest. Originally, it was just Sunday to allow people to go to church and perhaps do their laundry. When factory employees began skipping work on Mondays, or “keeping Saint Monday,” the weekend was extended back into half of Saturday in hopes of improving productivity. Henry

courtesy wikimedia commons 95% of U.K. companies who participated in a four-day work week trial found that there were no negative impacts on productivity.