A Swedish company is touting a new method for an eco-friendly funeral: freeze-drying your body to turn it into powder before burying it in a small box made of cornstarch or potato starch and, as the box and your powdered remains decompose, it all fertilizes a plant planted above your grave in your honor. You could be “pushing up daisies” for real. Here’s how the company, Promessa Organic AB, describes it:
“The method is based upon preserving the body in a biological form after death, while avoiding harmful embalming fluid. Then it can be returned to the ecological cycle in a dignified manner as a valuable contribution to the living earth,” explains Susanne Wiigh-Mäsak, biologist and head of operations at Promessa Organic AB.
An important part of the solution is to remove that which is least important; the water that makes up 70 percent of a normal-sized body. Technically speaking, this is done using an entirely closed individual process in which the corpse is freeze-dried in liquid nitrogen.
Within a week and a half after death, the corpse is frozen to minus 18 degrees Celsius and then submerged in liquid nitrogen. This makes the body very brittle, and vibration of a specific amplitude transforms it into an organic powder that is then introduced into a vacuum chamber where the water is evaporated away.
The now dry powder then passes through a metal separator where any surgical spare parts and mercury are removed. In a similar way, the powder can be disinfected if required. The remains are now ready to be laid in a coffin made of corn starch. There is no hurry with the burial itself. The organic powder, which is hygienic and odorless, does not decompose when kept dry. The burial takes place in a shallow grave in living soil that turns the coffin and its contents into compost in about 6-12 months time. In conjunction with the burial and in accordance with the wishes of the deceased or next of kin, a bush or tree can be planted above the coffin. The compost formed can then be taken up by the plant, which can instill greater insight in and respect for the ecological cycle, of which every living thing is a part. The plant stands as a symbol of the person, and we understand where the body went.
“Our ecological burial reduces environmental impact on some of our most important resources; our water, air and soil,” says Susanne Wiigh-Mäsak, biologist and head of Promessa Organic AB. “At the same time it provides us with deeper insights regarding the ecological cycle, and greater understanding of and respect for life on earth.”
The process is patent-pending in 36 countries. Promessa says it is in talks to offer the service in several countries, though America isn’t on that list. But once it is, you may be faced with decision time on this once-hypothetical question: If you were a tree what kind of tree would you be?
