Livestock farms are increasingly built and provided due to meat consumption. That itself has a huge impact on the bodily and planetary health. This project deals with the impact on the environment due to generated excrements by livestock farms.
PLANTING
URNS //
tackling nutrient overload
Reducing meat consumption is one of the best options. Nevertheless, models must be created, should no individual and political rethinking take place.
The term itself is questionable. It perfectly projects how mammals have become something to serve us..
(Albert Schweitzer Stiftung für unsere Mitwelt, 2018)
The low storage capacities, high disposal costs and associated problems for the farms increase the risk of manure acceleration or illegal export to the fields. This causes overfertilization with far-reaching effects on the environment because the plants can not absorb the nutrients.
Chemical fertilizers as well have a huge impact. The regulation of both has to be central.
humans
livestock
wild animal
fertilizer regulations
disposal costs
mass
liquid manure
low storage capacities
accidents
FARMS
SEPARATION
SERVICE
MANUFACTURE
SALES
separated manure
process engeneering
product
proceeds
FREE SERVICE
Farmers are the central people in charge but are facing multiple issues like not to getting storage capacities approved by the authorities, the project aims to relieve them.
Cattle make up the highest percentage of the agricultural sector. And while the number of German farms, for example, is decreasing, the existing ones have an increasing number of animals.
This shows another problem besides meat consumption that is very important but was not a focus in this project..
When manure is separated, the liquid part remains with the farmer, but the farmer now has more free storage capacity. The solid, cellulosic part is further used, treated and converted into a material. The service can be offered free of charge to the farmers through the proceeds from products made from the material. Mobile separation technology as a process is costly and therefore not economical for many farms. The free service relieves farmers, saves storage space and prevents overfertilization.
RELIEF THROUGH FREE SERVICE
Liquid manure technology.Basically technology which squeezes out manure and divides it into two substances: liquid and cellulose.
Due to the nutritients within the dry manure and and its insulating properties, the material itself should be reusable or able to dissolve. Therefore only natural and soluble binders were tested.
MATERIAL IN THE MAKING
SAMPLE COLLECTION
Evaluating in detail and measuring the time it takes to dissolve in water.
Mainly through dissolving in water, texture and robustness.
pure
bone glue
gelatine
agar agar
bioplastic 1.0
bioplastic 2.0
1.0
2.0
Too quick too moldy due to more water usage.
Quite fragile
Little loose.
Stabile, but still flexible.
Stabile, but still flexible.
One value of the material lies in the nutrients and high cellulose content. In the best case, both should be returned to the soil - either by controlled application, but with long recovery times, or scattered over a wide area so minimally that no overfertilization can occur.
APPLICATION AREAS
Seeding utensiles.
Guerilla spreading of seeds.
Gardening
Single packaging.
Funerals.
Single use.
70% of burials in 2018 in Germany were urn burials. Urns represent a product that is added to the soil and can be decomposed and absorbed by it in a controlled manner during the period of mourning - an urn grave usually exists for 15-25 years. This also means that in the area of a grave, fertilizer comes into contact with the earth once in this period during burial due to the decay of the urn.
URN
Since burials are also carried out in the rain and snow, the synthesized material must be protected by a shell-like concept of wood. Inlays not only present the material, but also let the urn after insertion, draw wetness and the decomposition of the urn begins.
The metaphor of a an onion is meant to support the approach that natural growth is encouraged. A goodbye remains a goodbye, yet both weaves into the funeral that something new is to emerge. The urn is planted.
Mr. Kentrup is a mortician and managing director of the funerals Hebenstreit & Kentrup in Bonn, Germany. He also developed the award-winning "Grüne Linie" concept, which focuses on sustainable funerals.
"Is an urn a big taboo topic in funeral service?
What is your assessment?"
"I don't think that's too dramatic. [...] I think it's a matter of communication and marketing. Of course, the urn would not appeal to everyone. But I see more and more young people who are looking at the issue of sustainability and for whom the area could open up. It could also be a very interesting application for cemetery forests in particular, since they use alternative materials anyway. Presumably, the product simply has to be advertised and communicated properly, as well as being visually appealing. After all, in direct contact, the mortician himself is the customer and, if he is convinced of the product, he will be committed to its sale and use."
-Interview with Mr. Kentrup, 2020
THE PLANTABLE URNS
There are two places for urns to be used - traditional cemeteries and cemetery forests. Since cemeteries follow additional requirements that stipulate certain materials and a deeper burial of the urn, this was modul created so that it can be used for both areas.
Ceremony within a church or community space.
This urn is completely filled with the material and encloses the core of it - the ash bag. The urn body is screwed to the neck of the urn and thus closed. The neck closes at the top with a ceramic lid, which is removed during the funeral ceremony, placed on the grave and replaced. It is replaced by a wooden pot, which connects the roots of a plant with the inside of the urn neck. The plant can be chosen in advance from a range of possible grave plants. While the urn is planted, the grave itself is also being planted, completing the ceremony.
Usually the families are left with arranging the funeral also while grieving. How can the pressure of organizing the funeral be reduced?
Burial outdoors with a few words.
Planting the urn together.
The prototype is made of hardwood and around 70cm high.
PROTOTYPING
And even more important "made by" as I received amazing help from staff by the university and a befriended carpenter. This is a group effort.
Since the urn is modular, it can be used for two different types of burial. In the context of a burial in the cemetery forest, where it is placed around a tree, relatives say goodbye and together lower the urn into the gravesite and planting it into the soil.
CEREMONY CEMETERY FOREST
This urn consists of the same base as the other urn, but closes with an engraved lid. A story, a signature or a wish can be planted together with the urn. Both concepts of urns have intarsia which show the material on the inside. These not only serve as windows, but also as an entry point for humiditiy and water from the soil to start the decomposition.