Composting alternative to cremation or burial

Washington has become the first state in the US to approve composting as an alternative to burying or cremating human remains.

Governor Jay Ins lee signed legislation allowing 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 as pan of several weeks.

Loved ones are allowed to keep the soil to spread, just as they might spread the ashes of someone who has been cremated-or even use it to plant vegetables or a tree.

“It gives meaning and use to what happens to our bodies after death ,” said Nora Menkin, executive director of the Seattlebased People’s Memorial Association.