The dead have had it pretty rough for a long, long time.
After all, there are only two real alternatives on the slab for what to have done with oneself after life: tie up space by being buried in the dark, cold earth or be committed to the flames and thereby have one’s emissions contribute to the planet’s climate emergency.
But now Washington State have ploughed proudly forward and are offering a third way: composting!
Simply have your loved ones dump your corpse into the green bin and put it out on the curb on garbage night and yes we’re joking.
The new law (which, to emphasise, is exclusive to Washington at this point) “allows licensed facilities to offer ‘natural organic reduction’ which turns a body, mixed with substances such as wood chips and straw, into about two wheelbarrows’ worth of soil in a span of several weeks,” according to the Associated Press.
And there are good things about this plan. It’s non-polluting, it doesn’t take up the sort of space an embalmed and be-coffined human does, and there’s something rather nice about the idea of returning to soil.
It’s still not quite enough to change the current plan to have my body dragged out to Port Lincoln to be fed to great white sharks, but it seems almost as dignified an exit.