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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

The Vox Box

The Green Hereafter

If you're like most Americans, you'll want to be buried or creamated.

But exactly how safe is this for the environment?

Burial requires a decomposition below the surface, without oxygen, producing a sloppy mess that emits carbon dioxide into the soil. It is estimated that americans use more metal each year for coffins than was used to make the Golden Gate Bridge and enough concrete to build a two-lane highway from New York to Detroit. The embalming fluid used on corpses is another 800,000 gallon-discrepancy on Earth, leaking carcinogenic formaldehyde.

Creamation is much less environmentally impacting, (less muss, less fuss, after all.) Yet better still is a process called  promession, a corpse gets freeze-dried with liquid nitrogen and then shattered into powder. The result is two parts--a powder, and a liquid that you could pour on your house plants.

So, you experimental types—why not turn yourself into the ultimate recycling project and donate your body to science? (Wink, wink..)



In 2006, then-editor Steve Smith of The Spokesman-Review had the idea of starting a publication for an often forgotten audience: teenagers. The Vox Box was a continuation of the Vox, an all-student staffed newspaper published by The Spokesman-Review. High school student journalists who staffed the Vox made all content decisions as they learn about the trade of journalism. This blog's mission was to give students an opportunity to publish their voices. The Vox Box and the Vox wrapped up in June 2009, but you can follow former staffers' new blog at http://voxxiez.blogspot.com.