The year is 2017 and what a time to be... dead! That's right, I said dead. I'm sure you're wondering why I would be praising death in 2017 and you'd be right to question it. June 2017 is the first pilot program for the Urban Death Project. What is the Urban Death Project you ask? The Urban Death Project is the start of something great for our wonderful Planet Earth and all us humans have to do is to allow our dead bodies to be part of the Urban Death Projects Recomposition. Still confused? Let me walk you through it.
Let's look at some facts first. According to Ecology.com you will find that approximately 55.3 million people die every year. Which narrows down to roughly 151,600 people dead per day. Take it a bit further and you have about 6,316 people dead per hour! That's a lot of dead people in not a huge amount of time. Which only proves that humans do and will at some point die. There's no stopping it, no preventing it, it's simply a part of life. What exactly happens to all those bodies after they die anyway?
In America, the two most common forms of handling a dead body is one to bury it in the Earth, or two, cremate it. Let's take a look at America's most popular corpse disposal, burying. According to Urban Death Project, 2.6 million people die each year in America and more than half of those corpses are buried into the ground. We intentionally dig six feet into the Earth to lower a decomposing body wrapped into a casket to sit for years and years and years beyond our lifetime. This process in itself releases extremely wasteful toxins, which not only harm the living who live near these cemeteries, but also the Earth in which we bury them by harming the environment.
Now let's take a look at America's second favorite corpse disposal method, cremation. So being buried under the ground makes you squirm in your seat, don't worry you're not alone. Unfortunately, your only other option at this point is to be burned to ashes, literally. Although the cremation process as a whole is less damaging to the Earth it still is not perfect. According to Seven Pounds,"...cremations in most crematorium retorts require the burning of natural gas, and therefore the release of greenhouse gases, as well as the vaporization of other chemicals that may be present in the cremated body, such as mercury used in amalgam dental fillings, and dioxins and furans." Those words alone just look nasty, imagine what they're doing to the air you're breathing in every single day.
So we are left now with the question, what can we do to help? Obviously, we can't magically make the corpses disappear, but there is a way to make them bloom. That's right, I said bloom. Let me introduce you to the Urban Death Project. The Urban Death Project is a new and eco-friendly way to handle our deceased bodies. They have researched the human body for many years and learned just how perfect our bodies can be for the Earth. They have come up with a way to turn our corpses into soil which in-turn can help our Earth bloom. The entire process is called Recomposition. How do they plan to do this? The process is much simpler than you'd expect.
First, the deceased body will be taken to an Urban Death Project Facility where it is lightly wrapped in a simple shroud. Friends and family of the deceased may carry their loved one to the top of the core. Once they reach the core they place their loved one into the core and cover their body with wood chips. This step will begin the transformation from human to soil. Within a few weeks, the corpse will decompose naturally into Earth-friendly soil. The bodies soil can then grow into beautiful trees, flowers, grass, and more. Let's see, be buried in a casket for a lifetime, be burned to ashes or be turned into a magnificent tree? The answer seems pretty clear to me! I mean, who wouldn't want to die and turn into a beautiful flower?
The Urban Death Project's first pilot program begins this month, June 2017 and runs through to May 2018. The best way you can help is to get the word out. Spread your newly found knowledge of Urban Death Project to others around you and tell them to spread it, too! If you're looking for more into the Urban Death Project check out their website for podcasts, videos and more. Let's make our dead bodies useful by recomposing and helping our planet one dead body at a time!
