Eight coffins in a warehouse. Of the “vessels”, prefers to say Seth Viddal, the master of the place. Boats that carry the dead for a three or four month journey towards final decomposition. The boxes – in stainless steel – are covered with a white shroud. Each is watched over by a green plant, which gives the hangar an air of solemnity – they are still human bodies. A digital thermometer measures the temperature inside the cylinders. One shows 65°C; another, 55… “At 50°C, I turn them over”, says Chris Olachia, Operations Manager.
The hangar of The Natural Funeral, the funeral home run by Seth Viddal, is located in Arvada, in a semi-industrial area on the outskirts of Denver (Colorado), between automotive supplier and recycling wholesaler. It is hard to imagine that a practice was invented here that claims to revolutionize funeral rites in the United States: the body compostingor natural – and accelerated – decomposition of the deceased, an ecological alternative to burials and cremations. “Until now, families had only two solutions at their disposal. We want to give them a choice.”explains Seth Viddal, whose long wise beard is more reminiscent of a Zen monk than an undertaker.
Since March 2022, The Natural Funeral has returned forty deceased to the earth (including six from other states). The first was 19 years old. The victim of an accident, the young Joseph Poisson, of Boulder, inaugurated the process, according to the wishes of his parents. At the end of December 2022, fourteen bodies are in the process of “natural reduction”, the expression contained in the law. They will reappear in three or four months – depending on the individual and how they died – in the form of black, fertile soil, which will be returned to the family. Each body fills the equivalent of three wheelbarrows, says Chris Olachia. ” It is a great honor to return them to loved ones. We regenerate the planet. »
Restoring the connection of humans to the earth
The Natural Funeral is one of four companies that practice body composting in the USA. The process, developed in Seattle by architecture student Kate Spade, was legalized by the State of Washington on May 21, 2019, a world first. Since then, he has continued to growing in popularity, especially in the American West, a land where nature is a constant concern. As death approaches, the baby-boomer generation is seized by a growing enthusiasm for alternative rites, less polluting and invasive than the methods dictated by the funeral industry. Liquid cremation (in three hours, the body is dissolved in acid), certified “green” cemeteries and funeral care… body.
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