인간의 시체를 묘지에 매장하지 않고,퇴비( Human Composting)로 만들어 다시 그퇴비를 사랑하는 가족들이 키우는 집안의 화분에 거름으로 뿌리거나, 정원수의 뿌리에 거름으로 넣어주면, 같이 한공간에 있다는 생각을 갖게되는 이점뿐만 아니라 특히 대도시에서의 토지부족을 해소할수 있는 이점도 있다는 생각이다.
온실같은 정원에 마치 벌집처럼된 여러개의 통을 벽에 부쳐서 설치 해놓고, 사랑하는 가족중 세상을 떠난 분들의 시체를 그속에
보관하면서 비료로 만들어, 비료로 완전 숙성되면 그비료를 집으로 가져와 화분에 흙으로 사용하거나, 정원의 나무뿌리에 뿌리게
해서,사랑하는 가족들과 함께 영원히 같이 동거하는 Concept를 현실화 하기위해, 미국의 와싱턴주에서 입법을 추진하고 있다고
한다. 만약에 시체를 매장하는 대신에 Composting을 허용하는 입법이 된다면 서구사회에서는 첫번째 나라가 될것이라고 한다.
위의사진이 바로 인간퇴비를 만드는 개념이다. 벽을 따라 벌집처럼 각보관 셀을 만들어 그곳에서 인간퇴비를 생산하는 것이다. 이과정이 끝나면 다시 집으로 모셔가 항아리에 모시지않고, 화분에 뿌리는 개념이다.
"자연은 인간의 몸둥이가 어떻게 자연적으로 흙으로 변하는가를 잘 알고있다. 문제는 내가 죽은후, 내가 살아왔던 흙으로 다시
되돌릴수 있는가 하는 점인데, 그렇게 함으로써 새로운 생명이 창조된다는것이 가장 중요한 점이다"라고 48세의
Seattle거주,Nina Schoen씨는 설명하는데, 그는 사후에 다시 내몸둥이가 푸른 자연으로 되돌아갈수있는가를 생각하는
사람들중의 한분이다.
범죄의학자 Daniel Wescott씨의 설명에 따르면, 시체가 썩어서 흙으로 되돌아 가기위해서는 수개월이 걸린다 라고 설명한다.
"내가 죽으면, 공동묘지에 묻히지 않기를 바란다. 화장 또한 원치 않는다. 실제로 이러한 장례방법은 내가 원하는 방법이 아니다"라고 Grace Seidel씨는 설명한다.
"화장을 한다고 생각해 보자, 화장 오븐에 시체를 넣고 불태운다는것은 생각만 해도 끔찍한 기분이다. 매장한다고 할때, 내몸은 이미 화학물질로 꽉채워져서 땅속에 묻는것인데, 이러한 모든 장례의식을 나는 원치 않는다".
지난 수십년간 장례식을 치르면서 대부분의 사람들은, 매장이냐 아니면 화장이냐의 선택에 고민을 해왔었다. 그러나 미국의 일부지방과 캐나다에서는 제3의 선택이 가능했는데, 그것은 시체를 알카리성분으로 분해시키는 방법이다. 이방법의 장례방법이 UK에서도 시행될 것으로 보인다. 이장례의 기술적 명칭은 "알칼리가수분해"인데, 보통 상업적 면에서는 "푸른 화장법"이라고 한다.
화장하는 장례는 한때는 가장 친환경적인 방법으로 이해됐었다. 즉 시체를 불태운다는것은, 관이 필요없고, 방부처리하는데 사용하는 독성이 강한 화학물질을 사용할 필요가 없고, 토지사용을 줄일수 있다는 이점이 있었기 때문이었다. 전세계적으로 화장하는 장례를 선호하고 있으며, 특히 토지가 부족한 도시지역에서 선호했었다. 미국이 지금 그방법을 많이 이용하고 있다.
세계 각곳에서, 죽은자를 묻을 땅이 한계에 도달하는 압력이 높아지면서 시체를 어떻게 처리할것인가에 대한 문제들이 많이 나타나고 있다.
18,19세기 산업혁명이 일어나면서 많은 시골사람들이 일자리를 찾아 도시로 이주하는 현상이 일어났었다. 산업혁명전에는 대부분의 사람들이 시골지방에 거주하면서, 그지방에 있는 교회의 묘지에 매장 됐었다.
그러나 도시 인구가 불어나면서,Victorian Britain 당국은 거대한 공동묘지를 시내 외곽에 조성하였었다. 그런데 그커다란 묘지가 지금은 거의 다 사용되여 빈자리가 없어지는 상황이다.
영국처럼, 많은 나라들은 오래전부터 외곽지역에 매장을 권장하고있다. 그러나 Ms Menkin씨 처럼, 인간퇴비 방법을 주장하는 사람들은 푸른 장례식을 전세계적으로 장려함으로써 더많은 토지를 이용할수 있도록 해야 한다고 역설하고 있다.
"만약에 도시거주인들뿐만이 아니고 전세계적으로 이방법을 이용하게 된다면, 특히 대도시 처럼 공터가 부족한 곳에서는 지하에 매장할 땅이 없는 곳에서는 인간퇴비장례만이 진정으로 택할수있는 방법이다."라고.
나같은 보통사람은 남의 시선을 의식할 필요가, 사회에 많이 알려진 사람들 처럼, 그리 많지 않기에, 자연이 베풀어준 은혜를 되갚는 방법으로, 인간퇴비장례에 동참하는것도 한 좋은 방법이 될수있을 것으로 생각해 본다. 나의 Sibling이 동조해 준다면... 사후에는 알수없는 일이니까 보장은 안되지만...
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This is the vision - in an indoor
garden, a honeycomb structure lines the walls, and inside each cell, a
human body composts. When it's done, loved ones take home a pot of soil,
not an urn of ash.
A person's final resting place could be the foundations of a flowerbed or could feed the roots of a tree.
This
is what Washington state is preparing to legalise. If the bill passes,
the western state would be the first in the nation to allow human
composting as a burial option.
Here's what it means to choose a
compost burial - and why a growing group of Americans are eschewing
convention for a new way to rest in peace.
Lying in the open, a human body can take months to return to earth, says forensic anthropologist Daniel Wescott.
First, the skin "slips" and blisters. It turns blacks and greys and greens. It bloats.
In drier climes, it can mummify for years; in wetter ones, a face becomes a skull in weeks.
Prof
Wescott of Texas State University studies the decomposition of human
bodies at the largest forensic research centre in the country.
"As long as you have good bacterial activity, you can decompose in probably a month."
But this is a rarely a body's fate these days.
Most will be cremated, buried in a casket, or sealed in a vault - eating up wood, land, and other resources in the process.
A growing number of voices in the Pacific Northwest are now saying that isn't enough.
"Nature knows how to transform our bodies to soil all on its own," Nina Schoen says.
The 48-year-old Seattle resident is among the groundswell of people seeking greener ways to die.
"What's
most important to me is that after I'm gone, my body is able to give
back to this earth that has supported me, and through that create new
life.
The driving force behind the movement in Washington state is Katrina Spade and her company, Recompose.
It says it can turn you into useable, fertile, soil in 30 days.
"It's
just an accelerated process of natural decomposition," says Nora
Menkin, executive director of People's Memorial, a non-profit funerary
services advocacy group in Seattle, Washington.
The method
Recompose offers is based on the ways we already compost livestock -
with a few changes from Washington State University soil science
researcher Prof Lynne Carpenter-Boggs to make the mixture more socially
acceptable.
Based on research from Prof Carpenter-Boggs' team, the
final process involves placing the body in a mix of wood chips and
similar composting materials, allowing thermophilic - heat-loving -
microbes and bacteria to get to work.
Remains are also heated to
131 F (55 C), killing off contagions so the resulting soil is safe to
use - a key part of why many supporters prefer this manner of burial.
"We
have all this energy and potential that's either burned up or sealed
away in burials, when it could be utilised to let life go on," Ms Menkin
says.
Energy is a recurring theme for supporters of the alternative burial
movement: Most say they began looking into these options because they
wanted to round out their lives in a greener way.
"Environmental concerns are very important to me and play an active role in my day to day choices," Ms Schoen says.
"It's a lens that runs through all parts of my life. It only makes sense that how I die is also aligned with how I live."
Recompose
touts their process as using "1/8 the energy of cremation", saving an
estimated metric ton of CO2 emissions per person over conventional
methods.
In Washington state, which has one of the highest rates
of cremation in the country, Ms Menkin says it could make a real
difference.
"My initial reaction was, well, that's a lot of work for what seems like a natural burial," she says.
Those
involve placing a body in a biodegradable casket or just a shroud
before burial, allowing the body to return to nature, naturally.
Many
places, like the UK, already offer natural burials. But advocates for
human composting like Ms Menkin say the practice could increase
accessibility to green funerals worldwide.
"If it brings the
option to urban dwellers and becomes available worldwide, especially in
really urban areas that don't have the option for any kind of natural
burial, that could be a real asset to those areas and the planet."
Disposing of any human remains on non-cemetery
grounds, unless you are the landowner, is a minor crime. And using
public lands requires the approval of government agencies controlling
the lands and waters.
Those laws will hold true for recomposed
burials too, but when remains are useable soil, even city-dwellers might
find spaces to memorialise the departed.
"Natural burial is
quite wonderful, but as the population increases, there is less
available land, and that's to me why having an option like recomposition
is so essential," Ms Schoen echoes.
Recompose founder Katrina Spade told Pacific Standard magazine
she hopes the company will one day transform city warehouses into
indoor gardens where people can lay their loved ones to rest and see the
body's "journey of transformation from human to soil".
Cremation was once heralded as the environmental answer to death;
burning bodies meant no caskets, no toxic embalming chemicals, no plots
of land rendered unusable.
Most of the world already prefers
cremation burials, particularly in urban centres faced with
ever-decreasing space. The US is catching up.
In 2018, just over
half of America's 2.8 million dead were laid to rest via a crematorium,
according to data from the US census and National Funeral Directors
Association (NFDA).
Cremation's lower cost accounts for much of
its popularity boost, the report says, but environmental concerns, fewer
religious prohibitions, a newly transient population, and a cultural
desire for less ritualistic practices have also changed America's
relationship with death.
Washington in particular has an unchurched, environmentally-conscious population, making it a natural leader of these changes.
By 2035, the NFDA predicts only 15% nationwide will opt for traditional burials.
University
of Southern California public policy Prof David Sloane, whose family
tree features a line of cemetery superintendents, says the country is in
a "moment of cultural hybridity".
"Conventions around death, dying, memorials and mournings are all being challenged," he says.
Those
challenges come from all manner of changes, he thinks. Like people
choosing to die at home rather than in hospital; people mourning on
social media rather than in church.
"Human composting is just one more example of how people are experimenting.
"It
in some sense flies in the face of longstanding conventions and at the
same time responds to new concerns about environmental issues. And so I
think those two things make it very novel."
Ms Schoen also tells me most people are shocked to hear how environmentally unfriendly current practices are.
"One
of the most common reactions people have when hearing [about
recomposition] for the first time is surprise when learning about the
negative environmental impacts of burial, cremation, and embalming."
But experimenting can be costly.
"An issue that a lot of people
have is the expense of it all," says Ms Menkin of People's Memorial.
"Right now it's projected to cost about $5,500 (£4,200). To be in an
urban centre you need real estate, design - it's not a cheap project to
take on."
The median cost of a burial and viewing ceremony in the US is over $7,000. For a vault, you can add another thousand.
Cremations fall closer to $1,100.
The push for compost burials is still small and grassroots. It's certainly not an option that would appeal to everyone.
Prof
Sloane adds that as culture changes, there will always be ethical and
societal questions raised by the composting of bodies.
"Will people's bodies be cared for honourably? And will we continue to be able to remember them as parts of our communities?"
Like
the cremationists of the late 19th Century, Prof Sloane says there's a
chance the movement will see pushback from religious institutions and
the existing funeral industry.
But for now, Recompose and advocates for compost burials are just focused on making it a legal option, Ms Menkin says.
"What's
really surprising is we were ready to convince people and let them know
just because it's different doesn't mean it's bad."
But they are overwhelmingly getting support, Ms Menkin says, "with a few people who just don't want to think about it".
Ms
Schoen, who hopes her family can use her remains to create life in
whatever way is meaningful for them, says Americans "just don't talk
about death enough".
"It's separate, it's somewhere else with someone else, until it's not."
"And
while it's a topic that many people don't like to talk a lot about,
it's pretty incredible when you sit back and think about it."
위의사진이 바로 인간퇴비를 만드는 개념이다. 벽을 따라 벌집처럼 각보관 셀을 만들어 그곳에서 인간퇴비를 생산하는 것이다. 이과정이 끝나면 다시 집으로 모셔가 항아리에 모시지않고, 화분에 뿌리는 개념이다.
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