The first of its kind, Memorial Pulping of America (MPA) has opened Forget Me Not Memorial Garden. They hope the test facility is one of many more to come. With concerns about global warming growing and the determination that cremation releases heavy metals into the atmosphere and standard burials involve toxic chemical use and vast amounts of inefficiently used land, the founders of MPA set out to rehabilitate the business of death and the ancient problem of what to do with our dead.
Moving beyond the "natural" burial concept, which forgoes the chemicals and sealed caskets, MPA has devised a method which allows the bodies of loved ones to essentially be pulped, processed, and bagged as fully compostable fertilizer in less time than a cremation or standard burial. The customer can then take a small bag of nutrient rich fertilizer home where plants of nearly any variety can be grown as an everlasting memorial to the dearly departed--with no adverse effects on the environment.
MPA admits that the greatest hurdle to success will be perceptual. Bix Ascof, lead founder of MPA, reports: "It's not as if we're throwing your loved one into a wood chipper or anything as crass as that. Yes, the body is pulped, but it is done in a very dignified way. It's the perfect way to show your commitment to a green future and honor your loved one in a single, simple, cost effective step."
SCI, the largest funeral home operator in the United States, has held up the opening of Forget Me Not Memorial Garden for over a year. It has tried a variety of attacks, everything from health and safety issues to a red herring attack using the stigma of Soylent Green. None of these tactics has been successful so they are now pinning their hopes on the aforementioned perception issues. They are confident that few people will be willing to subject the remains of loved ones to the process of pulping. Ascof points out that the process, however you view it, is no worse than that of cremation and you are left with a safe, useable product at the end of the process.
A separate facility is being built that will focus on pets that have passed on. This segment promises to be readily accepted. In an effort to display the results of their process, Ascof and MPA have partnered with the American Humane Society and has used pulped pet product fertilizer to feed and nurture a huge demonstration garden behind the Forget Me Not location. The second purpose of this garden is to show the wasted land use of a standard cemetery.
Ascof and company are confident that the pet service, due largely in part to the agreement with the American Humane Society, will be an almost certain success. The question remains on how quick the general populace will be to embrace this new technology for their own loved ones. "As global warming advances and resources become more and more scarce, the sense of this will be clear." In the end, simple economics may pave the way to Ascof's success. Land use and maintenance and the rising cost of materials used in coffins will make common burial an increasingly expensive endeavor. This is the future according to Bix Ascof, and he's counting on this future to help push what he sees as the only responsible way of caring for our dead.
