Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
When a loved one passes away, we often just have two choices- burial or cremation. But there’s a new option in some states that claims to use less energy and resources.
Here to tell us more are Luci Jones and Marin Warshay from our Possibly Team.
Luci Jones: Hi, Megan!
Marin Warshay: Hello!
Hall: Okay so death—not something we talk about a lot.
Jones: Nope! Definitely not your average dinner table conversation. But, we all die, so it’s unavoidable.
Hall: Tell me about this new approach to processing a dead body.
Warshay: It’s called “body composting” and it’s becoming a popular alternative to burial and cremation. To learn more we talked to Brianna Smith, the Chief Operating Officer at a service called Return Home.
Brianna Smith: Return home is a burial and cremation alternative
Jones: Bree worked in the traditional funeral industry for over a decade and had a lot of experience with cremation. She said it was pretty bleak
Smith: No pun intended. I was burning out like bad.
Jones: So, instead of burning bodies or burying them, her company turns them into soil
Hall: Whoa back up. What does it mean to transform human remains into soil??
Warshay: Generally speaking, this is done by putting the body into a metal box with alfalfa, straw, and sawdust.
Smith: Alfalfa has nitrogen, the straw insulates and then the sawdust has absorption.
Warshay: They also make sure the box has tons of oxygen and a consistent amount of moisture.
Jones: All together, this creates the perfect environment for microbes and bacteria to quickly break down the remains.
Warshay: With this method, it only takes 30 to 60 days for the body to break down versus the two to three years it would take if you simply buried the body.
Hall: What happens after the body breaks down? Do they just dump it out of the metal box?
Jones: The composted body becomes nutrient-rich soil, and the family can do whatever they want to with it.
Hall: Okay… but how is this different from a traditional burial besides the body breaking down faster?
Warshay: Well, the biggest difference is that traditional burial involves coffins or caskets
Jones: At Return Home, the metal boxes used for composting bodies are just cleaned and reused.
Warshay: And body composting avoids all of the toxic chemicals that are typically used in embalming.
Jones: Plus, burials take up space in a graveyard, which has to be maintained as well.
Warshay: Bree says:
Smith: It’s really the layers that we put between the people in the earth that are a little bit problematic.
Hall: Okay, but what about cremation? It doesn’t require a coffin or any extra space.
Jones: That’s true, but cremation uses fuel, which then emits greenhouse gases. About the same amount as burning through two tanks of gas.
Hall: Ok, but you only die once! And I’ve definitely filled up my tank more than twice just this month! What’s the big deal?
Warshay: Over 3 million people a year die in the US alone, so multiply those two trips to the gas station by over three million.
Jones: The numbers get pretty big pretty fast..
Warshay: But body composting uses only about 12% of the energy it takes to cremate!
Hall: So, should I request “body composting” in my will?
Jones: You can try. But right now, it’s still pretty expensive. Also, it’s only legal in four states.
Warshay: Bree says Return Home sometimes has to fly bodies from one state to another just to get the body composted legally.
Jones: But as the composting technology improves and the service becomes more accessible, it is definitely a great end of life option to think about for yourself or someone you know!
Hall: Got it! Thanks, Luci and Marin!
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Possibly is a co-production of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative, and the Public’s Radio.
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