Mulch Me When I Die

I’ve been following this story for awhile, to see if the proposal actually came to fruition, and so it has. Next year, Jonkoping, Sweden will turn its crematorium into what’s known as a promatorium—in which bodies will be freeze-dried, treated with liquid nitrogen, and gently vibrated for about a minute until they shatter into a powder. A vacuum removes the water, a metal separator picks out metals such as artificial hips and dental fillings, and the remaining powder is then put into a biodegradable box and placed in a shallow grave where it disintegrates in a year or less. I want to be promated!

People are to be encouraged to plant a tree on the grave. It would feed off the compost formed from the body, to emphasise the organic cycle of life.

The national burial law is currently being updated to accommodate a practice that is expected to spread across the country over the next few years.

The technique was conceived by a Swedish biologist, Susanne Wiigh-Masak, 49, who said: "Mulching was nature's original plan for us, and that's what used to happen to us at the start of humanity - we went back into the soil.

"But we need to tell people in this day and age that this can once again be a dignified and comfortable option." …

Jonkoping's motivation for converting its crematorium into a promatorium is mainly practical. According to European environmental laws, it faced a multi-million pound bill for the installation at its 50-year-old crematorium of a new gas-cleaning system and furnace.

The alternative was the much cheaper conversion and a more environmentally friendly procedure.

Come on—how cool is that?! It’s like the ultimate recycling project; give all my usable bits to people who need them (eyes, kidneys, liver, whatever) and then bury me in a potato box and plant a tree. Make it an apple tree, so you can have a glass of delicious cider and toast my tasty death every autumn.