At New Futures Show, Big Dreamers and Changemakers Activate a Better Way Forward | At the Smithsonian
smithsonianmag.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from smithsonianmag.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
smithsonianmag.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from smithsonianmag.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Dubbed Recompose, the process uses “Recomposition Vessels” to turn human remains into soil that family can collect and use in their own gardens.
For $5,400, remains are covered with biomass, including wood chips, alfalfa, and straw grass under aeration to promote decomposition by microbes and bacteria.
The average human can be converted into a square meter of soil approximately seven wheelbarrows in a month. The process also creates less carbon dioxide and requires far less energy than cremation.
Recompose is just the latest offering for green burials. Italian designers Anna Citelli and Raoul Bretzel created a pod that uses a decomposing body to grow a tree. Another option, Leaves With You, is comprised of a biodegradable coffin made from macrame that is made by mourning family and friends and is infused with fungus to speed up decomposition.