More states are clearing their way into the burial process that turns corpses into soil, and can be used to grow plants and gardens.
Body Composting: Understanding the New Green Burial Trends
As it is considered an alternative to cremation and burial, green practices are legal in Washington, Colorado and Oregon, and more states are expected to follow suit in the near future.
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Nina Schuhn loves the idea of life (plant life) that comes from death.
Shoen has a best friend who chose to compost her body. Those processes remain decomposed into soil that can be used to grow plants and trees.
After she dies, she hopes that the same thing will be done in her body.
“I think what resonated with me is that it happens slowly,” said Shoen, who works in the tech industry. “Like sadness happens slowly, we slowly transform from one thing to another over time.”
Schuhn first discovered human composting before it was even legal in his homeland in Washington. She heard Katrina Spade talk about the process and “will be connected to the idea right away.”
“I knew right away this was the path for me,” said Shoen, 54. She is a prepaid member of Recompose, a Seattle Funeral Home that offers human composting services founded and led by Spade.
Human composting is part of the funeral industry’s trend towards more sustainable and environmentally friendly burials. So-called green funerals include other practices such as human composting and the selection of green burial materials such as chemical preservatives and biodegradable cas.
The National Funeral Home Alliance points out that laws regulating postmortem care vary from state to state. However, in recent years the doors have opened to human composting burials for millions of people.
Washington was the first state in 2019 to allow human composting. Since then, 12 other states have passed similar laws, including New York, California, Colorado, Minnesota, Maryland and Georgia. Also, laws have been introduced in 15 other states, including Texas, Utah, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Indiana recently.
“You can’t do this in your backyard.”
Spade told USA Today that she is working on her master’s thesis and is jumping into the funeral industry.
She knew she wasn’t the only one who was wondering about it. “People were ready for changes in the funeral industry,” she recalls. As baby boomers begin to die as they age, adult children are reassessing their wishes. The greater awareness of the environmental impact of burial and cremation has led people to seek more sustainable alternatives, Spade said:
Recompose brings together engineers and soil scientists and works with departments of state agencies, health and licensing agencies to composting human remains appropriately and responsibly, provide all necessary monitoring, and appropriate respect and courtesy should be part of the end of human life.
“You can’t do this in your backyard,” Spade said. “We are a full-service, fully licensed funeral home. When I began to come up with ideas, there was skepticism (within the funeral industry). But it’s fair to see the funeral director view this as part of the rapid embrace of the natural evolution and process of the industry.”
According to the National Funeral Directors Association, nearly 62% of the US who died in 2024 were cremated and buried at 33.2%. However, 68% of consumers surveyed by the group said they were interested in learning more about “green funerals” from 55.7% in 2021.
How does human composting work?
Spade said companies like Recompose use processes that mimic the natural process of plant decomposition. There, the topsoil is where plants biodegrade and grow new life.
“We add a human touch and we put rigour and science behind it,” she said.
- First, the body is placed in a container with a mixture of plant materials, wooden chips, straw and alfalfa, calibrated for each individual and cocots the artifact of spades known as the “optimal environment for microorganisms.”
- This process takes about 5-7 weeks. Meanwhile, changes occur at the molecular level, resulting in nutrient-rich topsoil.
- The material is allowed to be treated for another 3-5 weeks until it is removed from the container and can be used as nutrients in the park, forest, or even garden.
- You can reorganize with a non-profit conservation group to donate the soil or return it to your loved ones for your composting or scattering.
When I return home, another company that offers human composting services, I call the process “terramation.” They take about 30 days to the destruction down process and 30 days before it can be used as compost.
Why should states pass laws on human composting?
State law covers questions about whether the body of the deceased can be brought home. Preservatives and Burial Regulations. Guidelines for which materials will and will not be used. Obtaining a death certificate. Transport and/or transmitting ruins.
According to the Funeral Consumer Alliance, Connecticut, Illinois, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Iowa, Louisiana, New York, New York, New York, Nebraska and New Jersey, there are legal requirements to use commercial funeral homes or hire a funeral director.
Eco-friendly alternatives to traditional burial and cremation have become more popular, but they are not legal in all 50 states.
Spade said it would pass legislation to allow human composting to be “bipartisan in every state.” In Washington, Republican lawmakers in the eastern part of the state said they represent many farmers who understood the benefits of the custom, as they were constantly composting livestock.
Are there any critics of human composting?
In 2023, the Conference of Catholic Bishops said in a statement that human composting and alkaline hydrolysis (where the body dissolves in water and alkali under high temperatures and pressure, and the remaining material is dried and crushed) “cannot meet the Church’s requirements for proper respect for the body of the dead.”
Spade notes that the Catholic Church once opposed cremation, and still considers traditional burials to be preferred.
Why do people choose to composting humans?
Sarah Chavez is the executive director of The Order of The Good Death, an advocacy group that is part of the “death-sensitive” movement, and helps restructure conversations about the existence of death and death, providing resources on topics such as funeral planning, end-of-life issues, funeral practices, and costs.
Chavez said the group that Spade is a founding member has seen significant changes in the funeral industry over the past decade. “It’s surprising to think that there’s been little change for almost a century,” she added.
Funerals came out of people’s homes in the 20th century and came into more specialized realms, but it seemed to deprive them of their ability to personalize and process death in a healthy way.
However, the tide is heading in the opposite direction. Because people are looking for something that better reflects their values, personality, traditions and preferences.
Human composting is one way people can exercise those choices, she said. Family members can decorate their loved one’s ship, spend time during the composting process, spend time in grief, bringing concrete pieces of people that can be used to nurture something new.
“If you have that soil, you can still be there in a way,” she said.
I think it’s rude to composting human remains based on religious grounds or to composting them. But Chavez said it is important to consider someone’s wishes. “Who judges something rude? For me, the most respectful thing you can do is respect someone’s ultimate wish.”
Nina Schuhn shared her desire for her mother, husband and daughter to be composted through reconstruction with her 12-year-old daughter.
“Maybe the saved emissions (without being buried or cremated) may not be that great, but I felt this was a gesture,” she said. “How much do I need to take from the Earth? The soil is part of nature, and that is part of what we need to recover. More dirt. More gardens.
