It's no secret that deathcare in its current form is extremely bad for the environment.
The process of embalming, as per the New York Post, releases many toxins into the environment and that's not to mention the clouds of smoke which billow from cremation machines around the world on a daily basis. Burials themselves often take up much-needed land, and that's why people are now looking to more environmentally friendly green burials.
And one of these new options is a 'human compost' funeral, which, quite literally, does what it says on the tin (or, in this case, urn).
This relatively new burial method was promoted by Lynne Carpenter-Boggs, a professor of soil science and sustainable agriculture at Washington State University, at the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in Seattle on Sunday. It has also been promoted online as part of the relatively unknown death positivity movement, which champions green burials.
As per the Guardian, Carpenter-Boggs said: "Death certainly isn't the biggest environmental impact we have in our life process. But we can still look for new alternatives."
She made this statement after Washington became the first state in the US to legalize human composting, CNN reports, and it is likely that many other states and nations will follow suit.
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Human composting works by placing a corpse inside a reusable hexagonal steel container. The body is accompanied by wood chips, alfalfa, and straw, and the internal conditions are carefully monitored to turn it into two wheelbarrows worth of compost within four to six weeks.
"It's a bit of a surprise that when the microbial activity starts up and there's enough feedstock, a whole different class of organisms, called thermophilic organisms, become active," Carpenter-Boggs continued.
In a pilot, it was discovered that every part of the human form, including bones and teeth, can be successfully transformed into compost. What's more, is that human composting requires an eighth of the energy of cremation.
However, human composting isn't the only alternative body disposition technique that's been proposed as a green burial. So too has alkaline hydrolysis, which is sometimes known as water burial. It involves placing the body in a tank of water and potassium hydroxide. After just four hours at a temperature of 150°C, only bones remain.
Per the Guardian, Sandy Sullivan, the founder of the Leeds-based company Resomation, which manufactures liquid cremation machines and sells them in the US, said of the process which is not currently legal in the UK: "I think it's a more gentle process than burning. Families are choosing it mostly because they see it as gentler."
How far would you be prepared to go to save the planet? For most of us, the changes we'd make to our own lives would be comparatively minor. You might want to start recycling a little more, start picking up the trash you see on your commute to work. Maybe you'd avoid non-reusable materials and think about installing some solar panels. But now 30-year-old nurse Daisy May Taylor has taken things one step further, by getting rid of toilet paper and now sticking with reusable cloths to wipe their backsides with. Instead of flushing the paper down the u-bend, they've elected to wash the poopy-cloths and use them again.
Daisy first started using reusable cloths after the birth of her daughter Eliza, whom she had with her husband Warren. Daisy was a conscientious environmentalist, and she did some research into environmentally friendly disposable nappies and she was shocked to discover how dangerous non-biodegradable diapers actually were. Now, the couple wipe by dampening the cloths and wiping themselves clean, before placing them in a sealed bin with a generous dollop of essential oils to combat the faecal odor. The cloths, which cost around £10 ($13), are washed in the washing machine daily along with Eliza’s nappies and cloths, before being dried and returned to the bathroom again.
Commenting on her unusual environmental decision, Daisy stated: "I think you feel cleaner. It’s a bit like using a toilet wipe, but you don’t have that feeling of it ruining the environment. We were worried about the environmental impact of nappies when Eliza was born and that has filtered down. Using reusable wipes after going to the toilet works with our lifestyle and reduces what we are throwing or flushing away. I did a lot of reading before having her and I was worried about the amount of waste using disposable nappies creates. They take between 200 and 500 years to decompose, sitting in landfill sites, so cloth nappies seemed like a better option to me."
She added: "I looked up a company online that uses only environmentally friendly materials and also donates 50 per cent of their profits to help build toilets for those in need. That did seem like it was a step forward, but I realised that I was already washing the cloths for Eliza and maybe I could just use them, too. So, I started using them in January. My husband was a bit unsure at first, but within a few days, he decided to try them too."
"We bought more of the cloths we were using for Eliza from an online site called ‘Cheeky Wipes,’ that specialises in different types of reusable wipes. Now there’s always a pile of clean ones in the bathroom and some in the wash ... I wash everything at 40 and we don’t use anything in particular to clean it. We just clean the washing machine out periodically."
However, despite her unorthodox lifestyle choices, Daisy has admitted that she does have a few rolls of toilet paper in the house, just in case any guests aren't comfortable using the cloths instead. So what do you think? Is she doing her bit to save the planet? Or is this gross and she's taking it too far. It all depends on your point of view.
"Reduce, reuse, recycle," come the cries of the eco-warriors. However, while taking a firm stance on environmental issues is still stigmatised, the effects of humankind's lax attitude towards the planet is manifesting itself in ever more concerning ways.
A sperm whale, one of the largest animals on the planet, is likely to have been defeated by the 1,000 pieces of plastic trash in its stomach. Washed ashore in an Indonesian national park, the carcass was assessed by researchers who discovered almost six kilos of plastic in its stomach.
Items discovered included 115 drinking cups, four plastic bottles, 25 plastic bags and two flip-flops. The 9.5m (31ft) creature was found near Kapota Island in the Wakatobi National Park late on Monday. The whale had to be buried without a necropsy due to its decayed condition but it's thought that the plastics in its stomach could be responsible for its death.
Zach Abraham, Director of Global Campaigns at WWF International, told VT: "This devastating discovery is a painful reminder of the impact that plastic pollution is having in our oceans and the damage it is causing to marine life. Governments and businesses must do more to prevent plastic from entering our rivers and oceans."
Last year, in addition to the news that we now cannot reverse climate change simply by planting trees, it was also reported that marine ecosystems are facing "irreparable damage". Stating that we are not in a position to fully heal our oceans might seem like a pessimistic approach. However, considering 10 million tonnes of plastic waste ends up in the world's oceans every year, it's not hard to see how the UN came to this conclusion.
In fact, in March, it was reported that a study by Foresight Future of the Sea Report had found that ocean plastic could triple in the next decade. Three months later, a pilot whale died off the southern coast of Thailand having swallowed 80 plastic bags."If nature had a distress signal to warn us that it can't take any more of our plastic rubbish," Greenpeace stated in a press release, "it would look like this - a dead whale with 1,000 pieces of plastic in its stomach. Our throwaway culture has turned whales' guts into dustbins for our plastic waste. And the global plastic contamination doesn't end there - this material is already in the food we eat, the water we drink, and inevitably in our bodies too. It's clear that we can't go on like this."
According to a German study, the majority of the plastics in the ocean come from just 10 major rivers - the Yangtze, the Indus, Yellow River, Hai River, the Nile, the Ganges, Pearl River, Amur River, the Niger, and the Mekong (in that order).There exists a clear cultural and corporate divide between east and west, with five Asian countries - China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand - responsible for more than half of the plastic waste that ends up in our oceans. This is according to a report published in 2015 by Ocean Conservancy and the McKinsey Center for Business and Environment.
In a tweet by WWF-Indonesia, they explain just what the carcass contained: "Hard plastic (19 pieces, 140g), plastic bottles (4 pieces, 150g), plastic bags (25 pieces, 260g), flip-flops (2 pieces, 270g), pieces of string (3.26kg) & plastic cups (115 pieces, 750g)."
“This discovery is deeply upsetting," Dwi Suprapti, WWF-Indonesia Marine Species Specialist, told VT. "It is a wake-up call for Indonesians about how plastic pollution is causing irreparable damage to our oceans and marine life. We urge businesses and governments to work together to address this issue urgently to prevent further plastic leakage into our oceans."
However, there are wider implications for those who eat meat and fish. While cups and flip-flops are - of course - a huge problem, there are also 51 trillion microplastic particles in the ocean. In many cases, plastic pellets are lost before they have a chance to be manufactured into something. Often ending up in drains, streams or bags of trash destined for landfill, they regularly make their way into the ocean.
Other microplastics can be found in toothpastes, facewash and cleaning items. That said, the items in the ocean which are visibly affecting wildlife - such as carrier bags - are also eventually broken down into microplastics.
Due to the cyclical nature of the food chain, these plastics then end right back where they started - with the humans. Because of the sheer quantity of meat and fish we eat, we ingest far more microplastics than any restaurant or supermarket would have you believe.
However, as well as meat and fish products, microplastics have also been found in honey, beer and sea salt. In fact, due to the erosion of the bottle itself, bottled water may contain up to 241 microplastic particles per litre.
"If we want to stop this slow-motion environmental disaster unfolding before our eyes," Greenpeace continue, "we need to immediately start cutting the amount of throwaway plastic we produce. The change needs to take place at the source: in the supermarket aisles where so much plastic packaging is sold and in the production lines of consumer giants like Coke, Nestle and others, where our plastic problem originates."
Eating up to one tonne of food per day, sperm whales are especially at risk of ingesting plastics and are considered a vulnerable species by the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature). However, living for up to 70 years and having the largest brain of any animal to have ever existed, sperm whales are in a unique position to observe the damage that the two-legged land creatures are doing to their home.
In one minute, you can take part in this Greenpeace campaign and urge major corporations to rethink their relationship with plastic.
The details of a gruesome discovery at the Return to Nature funeral home in Colorado have emerged in court.
The remains of nearly 190 individuals, including children, babies, and fetuses, were found in a state of advanced decomposition, covered in flies, and surrounded by pools of bodily fluids, per the Associated Press.
The horrifying incident came to light when locals reported a foul odor emanating from the abandoned building, leading the police to investigate on October 4.
The scene they encountered was beyond imagination, with partially covered corpses, swarms of flies and maggots, and a pool of bodily fluids six inches deep.
Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) agent Andrew Cohen, who was tasked with examining the scene, described it as something unforgettable.
The remains were stored at room temperature in a derelict building on the 1.9-acre site, with bags of concrete also discovered. Shockingly, many families received urns filled with powder instead of the cremated remains of their loved ones.
Cohen revealed that 23 of the bodies dated back to 2019, and 61 were from 2020. The decomposed fluids had stained the once-cream-colored floor dark brown, and investigators had to use cardboard to avoid slipping on the thick decomposition fluids.
Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) agent Andrew Cohen, who was tasked with examining the scene, described it as something unforgettable. Credit: Chip Somodevilla / Getty
Countless insects, including maggots, had infested the building to such an extent that the plain-colored carpet appeared patterned. Photos from the scene showed bags bursting open, spilling bodily remains.
The court also saw stills from a functional surveillance system inside the funeral home, showing Jon Hallford, one of the operators, surrounded by decomposing bodies in the month leading up to the discovery.
The FBI found that Jon Hallford had purchased almost a ton of concrete powder over several years, although there were no corresponding construction projects.
The Hallfords fled the state after the initial discovery but were arrested the following month in Oklahoma. They faced a range of charges, including abuse of corpses, forgery, theft, and money laundering.
Authorities suspect that financial difficulties drove the mistreatment of the bodies, as the Hallfords had accumulated substantial debt and faced lawsuits from suppliers. The couple had opened Return to Nature in 2017, offering environmentally friendly burials without embalming fluids and cremation services.
The FBI used DNA, fingerprints, and dental records to identify the corpses, with several dozen remaining unidentified. Families affected by this horrific incident expressed their grief, anger, and trauma, as their loved ones' remains had been left to rot for years.
Local officials plan to demolish the building where the bodies were found in the coming days. Colorado has previously seen cases of shocking funeral home mismanagement, including illegal body part sales and unlawful cremations, highlighting the need for increased oversight in the industry.
For the first time in the US, researchers have detected a group of toxic airborne particles that had previously not been found there before.
This discovery was made during a field study by researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder in Oklahoma's farmlands, and it could have serious consequences for environmental health.
Researchers detected an unexpected airborne toxin in US air for the first time. Credit: Phil Woodall / Getty
The researchers were originally in Oklahoma to study how tiny airborne particles form and evolve.
However, what they discovered was unexpected: the first-ever airborne detection of Medium Chain Chlorinated Paraffins (MCCPs) in the Western Hemisphere.
These toxic organic pollutants, which have previously been found in regions such as Antarctica and Asia, had never been measured in the air over the US until now. Their findings were published in the ACS Environmental Au Journal.
"It's very exciting as a scientist to find something unexpected like this that we weren't looking for," said Daniel Katz, a CU Boulder chemistry PhD student and lead author of the study, per Science Daily.
"We're starting to learn more about this toxic, organic pollutant that we know is out there, and which we need to understand better," he added.
What Are MCCPs and Why Are They a Concern?
According to The Mirror, MCCPs are chemicals used in industries like metalworking and making products such as PVC and textiles.
These chemicals can be located in wastewater and may end up in biosolid fertilizer, which is made from sewage sludge during wastewater treatment.
The researchers believe the MCCPs they detected in Oklahoma likely came from nearby fields where this type of fertilizer had been applied.
"When sewage sludges are spread across the fields, those toxic compounds could be released into the air," Katz explained. "We can't show directly that that's happening, but we think it's a reasonable way that they could be winding up in the air. Sewage sludge fertilizers have been shown to release similar compounds."
This discovery is important because MCCPs are being considered for regulation under the Stockholm Convention, an international agreement to protect human health from harmful chemicals.
The discovery came from continuous air monitoring at the Oklahoma site. (stock image). Credit: Drbouz / Getty
A Side Effect of Past Regulations
MCCPs are similar to SCCPs (Short Chain Chlorinated Paraffins), which have been regulated by the US EPA since 2009 because they travel long distances, last a long time in the environment, and are harmful to human health.
Researchers think that by restricting SCCPs, industries may have switched to using MCCPs, leading to their increased presence in the air.
"We always have these unintended consequences of regulation, where you regulate something, and then there's still a need for the products that those were in," said Ellie Browne, CU Boulder chemistry professor and co-author of the study. "So they get replaced by something."
MCCPs are also similar to PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), known as "forever chemicals."
These chemicals, which have been used in products like non-stick cookware and firefighting foam since the 1950s, do not break down easily and build up in the environment and human bodies.
Katz noted that, like PFAS, MCCPs could have serious long-term effects.
What's Next?
Now that researchers have detected MCCPs in the air, the next step is to study how their levels change over time and how they affect human health and the environment.
"We identified them, but we still don't know exactly what they do when they are in the atmosphere, and they need to be investigated further," Katz said.
"I think it's important that we continue to have governmental agencies that are capable of evaluating the science and regulating these chemicals as necessary for public health and safety," he added.
We rarely discuss what we would like to happen to us when we die. The prevalence of skulls and bones in “alternative” culture proves what a taboo subject area this has traditionally been. However, while “death” and “diamonds” aren’t two words you would usually put together, there is a glamorous new way to live forever.
The popularity of cremation has grown massively, especially in the US. So - like lattes - people are looking for ways to spice them up a bit. A number of companies are therefore offering to compress your loved one's ashes into a navy blue diamond.
Humans are primarily made of oxygen (the living, breathing equivalent of Masterchef-style foam) which helps the next most abundant material in a corpse - carbon - combust. Diamonds are also made of carbon but require immense pressure over time to change their molecular structure.
This process can be recreated however - and forward-thinking funeral homes are now including this as an option. “We're bringing joy out of something that is, for a lot of people, a lot of pain,” says Christina Martoia of Algordanza US, who are leading the charge in the movement.
Based in Switzerland, Algordanza is active in 33 countries. Speaking to Business Insider, Martoia explains that at least a pound of cremains (not a typo) is required for the process to work: “That's kind of the magic number, where our engineers can guarantee there will be enough carbon to make a memorial diamond.”
In some cultures, high-temperature cremation is favoured however, to create a memorial diamond, a lower temperature is best as more ashes are left. Usually, five to ten pounds of ashes are left over but only a small proportion of this is carbon.
A special oven is used to determine if there is enough carbon. Should there not be enough, a lock of hair could be enough to tip it over. Then the process begins. “We use an acidic chemical to get rid of impurities,” Martoia explains.
Boron, an inert element which contributes to the miscellaneous one per cent of remaining gasses in the air, is what gives the gems their blue colour. It occurs in humans in a similarly small quantity (a fraction of a per cent) but because it has such a similar atomic weight to carbon, they are difficult to separate out. As such a bittersweet memento however, blue seems an apt colour.
“The diamonds can range from clear to very deep blue,” Martoia states. “The more boron, the deeper the blue.” That said, it can be difficult to accurately predict the colour and some aren't blue at all. However, they are all usually at least 99.9 per cent carbon by the end of the process. “An interesting thing to note,” Martoia adds, “is that our technicians are seeing a correlation in people who have had chemotherapy. Their diamonds tend to come out much lighter.”
They might not have the optimum cut, colour, carat or clarity, but these diamonds are more meaningful than any engagement ring could ever be. More importantly, recreating the conditions required to form a diamond is no mean feat.
Temperatures of 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit are required, which are applied to a "growing cell". The cell, which contains an existing tiny diamond to help the carbon form a diamond-like shape, is also subjected to 870,000 pounds of pressure per square inch (that's two and a half houses bearing down on an area smaller no larger than a credit card).
However, if you’ve hastily persuaded a loved one to sign the relevant paperwork enabling you to legally turn them into a diamond, there’s a good chance they just won’t die. Rather than restlessly wait around for your diamond mother to kick the bucket, you can rest assured that the same option is available for pets. Furthermore, considering that dogs are man’s best friend and diamonds are a girl’s best friend, the deceased dog diamond makes for a perfect gender-neutral gift in these modern, enlightened times.
However, providing your family with some extra inheritance and a set of instructions to spread your ashes in various locations also seems pretty cool. In this writer’s opinion, the best option is to be portioned into thirds. The majority can be cremated so that your family can spread your ashes in meaningful places around the world, all while they admire their shiny, new family heirloom. The remaining third can then be buried in a small coffin (cost saving) so that they can gather, grieve and get to work cleaning that headstone. Happy Halloween!
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