To Self Compost or Not to Self Compost?

Yet another composting question, prompted by a friend's sharing a link to a new technique being researched to provide an alternative to burials and cremations.

It is "recomposition" or "human composting" as described by NBC.

Screenshot of the image from the linked NBC article.

This, or, rather, alternative burial methods, have been under consideration for a while.  There is a cemetery somewhere in Kentucky or in Appalachia that accepts only unembalmed corpses so that the soil microbes can just come and do their thing, without caskets and chemicals to get in the way.  [Edited: There’s one in Newfield, New York!; Further edited: And more sites!]  It seems the gentler way to depart the earth.  And if not this, then cremation, which apparently consumes quite a bit of energy.

Back in high school there was a Vanity Fair article that described a novel practice of disposing of the departed: in a monastery in Tibet, there is a monk whose job it is to chop up the bodies of deceased fellow monks in the open courtyard of the monastery so that the vultures can descend and have their meal.  The vultures know, so they come quickly.  It was at once a grisly description, but resonating in how true the practice is to Buddhist philosophy.

That particular method of departing the earth would not be especially feasible or green, at least from New York City - flying a body over to Tibet leaves a definite carbon footprint.  But finding a gentler way of departing seems a good aspiration.  The loved ones already know of this aspiration, and here is the public statement of wishes 😊