Cremation, burial or compost? Seattle woman proposing new way to dispose of deceased

A Seattle woman has come up with a new plan to dispose of bodies when people die: compost them.

Katrina Spade, the founder of the Urban Death Project, joined KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson Show to explain the project.

“The Urban Death Project is an organization that’s creating an alternative to burial and cremation that uses natural decomposition, in other words composting, to turn us back into soil.”

The composting would be conducted in a building housing a 3-story composting core. The space would also provide a place for family and friends to say goodbye and return to remember their loved ones.

According to the explanation of the process on their website, urbandeathproject.org, family members would wrap their loved one in simple linen and lay the body in a mixture of wood chips and sawdust at the top of the core. After a month’s time, they say a rich compost will have been created.

Family and friends are encouraged to take compost back to their yards and gardens. Additional compost would be distributed on-site at the facility or at city parks.

“So imagine that you go back to the Urban Death Project where you know your grandmother was composted,” Spade said, “you can look in the book and see, ‘oh it looks like the folks that were composted during these dates went to Volunteer Park and helped grow plants and trees there.’ So Volunteer Park would suddenly have this special meaning for you.”

While the scattering of compost might sound a lot like the scattering of ashes from cremation, Spade said there’s actually a significant difference. She said cremation destroys some lasting potential in our bodies that composting can make use of.

“We have nutrients that we carry around with us all day, every day, and when we die, if we’re cremated, those nutrients basically go up into the air as waste heat,” Spade said. “I like the idea that I could be kind of productive one final time.”

Monson asked if anyone’s proposing using a loved one’s compost in a vegetable garden.

“Wouldn’t it be creepy if you put a bowl of green beans on the table and you said, ‘Hey kids, grandpa made these’?”

“Some people find that creepy,” Spade said. “I’m not suggesting that we grow food quite yet out of this compost, but honestly, it could be kind of interesting if you think about it. Maybe it is a really beautiful way to respect our deceased. But that said, I’m really not trying to do that right now.”

While they’ve got some fundraising and legislative work to do, Spade said they hope to bring the composting option to the Seattle area sometime in the not too distant future.

“I think Seattleites and people in Washington state are a little more innovative and a little more interested in finding both meaning and a sense of practicality in death and dying.”