A new form of compost

The Washington state legislature recently passed a bill that allows human bodies to be composted — and used for mulch. It awaits the governor's signature.
So now you will have another choice - beyond cremation and burial - as to what to do with your body when you die.

Here is what your body will look like when it has been converted to mulch.

Human composting is being billed as an eco-friendly option by a Seattle-based company called Recompose. It already as two patents pending for “natural organic reduction”, which uses microbes to transform the departed — skin, bones and all. Microbes go to work within a large vessel, about eight feet tall and four feet wide, that fits a single body along with alfalfa, straw and wood chips. Over the course of 30 days, as temperatures in the vessel rise to 150 degrees, decomposition destroys the body, along with most pathogens and pharmaceuticals