I don’t know if composting of dead bodies is allowed in Italy or Vatican City, but I suspect not as the Catholic church seems to be against it.
The carbon footprint of the funeral was substantial.
Once the funeral was over the dead Pope was buried in a crypt below St Peter's Basilica that already contains more than 90 dead Popes. Some 50 000 people gathered for the funeral, and millions must have been watching on television. I’m not sure why it needed to be so big, and I don’t know if his body was embalmed-but I hope not. The dead 95 year old Pope was inside a huge, wooden coffin. But most importantly a signal would have been sent to the world that composting is the best way to dispose of the dead.
The soil might even be used to grow food, perhaps carrots to feed people who are poor. Nature would have been respected, greenhouse gas emissions would have been reduced, and in little more than a month the Vatican would have had a bag of rich soil that could be used to grow something in the garden where the dead Pope spent his final years. As I wrote this piece, Pope Benedict XVI was being buried, but I wish he had been composted.
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