The “body composter”, or a natural reduction technique of the body of the deceased, develops in the American West. The practice makes it possible to limit the high carbon footprint of traditional funeral.
by Corine Lesnes (Denver (Colorado), Special Envoy)
Eight coffins in a warehouse. “Vessels”, prefers to say Seth Viddal, the owner. Boats that take the deceased for a three or four month trip to the final decomposition. The boxes – in stainless steel – are covered with a white shroud. Everyone is watched by a green plant, which gives the hangar an air of solemnity – it is still human body. A digital thermometer measures the temperature inside the cylinders. One poster 65 ° C; Another, 55… “At 50 ° C, I return them,” said Chris Olachia, the operations manager.
The hangar of The Natural Funeral, the funeral home led by Seth Viddal, is located in Arvada, in a semi-industrial area of the suburbs of Denver (Colorado), between automotive equipment supplier and recycling wholesaler. Difficult to imagine that a practice is invented here which claims to revolutionize funeral rites in the United States: body composing, or natural decomposition – and accelerated – of deceased, an ecological alternative to burials and cremations. “Until now, families had only two solutions at their disposal. We want to give them the choice,” explains Seth Viddal whose long beard of Sage reminds more of a Zen monk than a crunchy-mort.
Since March 2022, The Natural Funeral has returned forty deceased to the earth (including six from other states). The first was 19 years old. Victim of an accident, young Joseph Poisson, of Boulder, inaugurated the process, according to the wish of his parents. At the end of December 2022, fourteen bodies were being “natural reduction”, the expression contained in the law. They will reappear in three or four months – depending on the individual and the way in which they died – in the form of a black and fertile soil, which will be given to the family. Each body fills the equivalent of three wheelbarrows, specifies Chris Olachia. “It is a great honor to restore them to loved ones. We regenerate the planet.”
restore the link of humans to the land
The Natural Funeral is one of the four companies that practice Body Composing in the United States. The process, developed in Seattle, by architecture student Kate Spade, was legalized by the State of Washington on May 21, 2019, a world premiere. Since then, he has continued to gain popularity, especially in the American West, a land where nature is a constant concern. As the death approaches, the generation of baby boomers is seized of an increasing craze for alternative, less polluting and invasive rites than the methods dictated by the funeral industry. Liquid cremation (in three hours, the body is dissolved in acid), cemeteries and funeral care certified “green” … The objective of the movement is to restore the link of humans to the earth, at the same time as to return their Body.
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