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Human composting
Ritual process of converting a deceased body into compost From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Human composting is a process for the final disposition of human remains in which microbes convert a deceased body into compost. In the early 21st century, a form of human composting that contains and accelerates the process was legalized in several U.S. states as natural organic reduction.[1][2]
Development and implementation
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Impetus
In the 21st century, several factors led to development of human composting as one of several proposals for alternative deathcare.[3]
As described in the 1963 exposé The American Way of Death, the for-profit death care industry in the United States evolved after the Civil War to promote ostentatious and resource-intense funerary customs mainly for burial, including embalming with chemicals, expensive coffins, and highly decorated gravesites.[4] Following the exposé, cremation grew in popularity as a simpler alternative, outnumbering burials nationwide by 2015.[5] However, cremation itself is under scrutiny due to the use of fossil fuels in retorts and the emissions released by combustion (which may include toxic mercury from dental amalgam).[6]
Development
Although the natural decomposition of human corpses into soil is a long-standing practice, Katrina Spade (founder of Recompose) is credited with pursuing research on ways to accelerate the process using methods previously used with livestock.[7] The process was the subject of scientific study at Washington State University.[8]
Methods
Composting is an aerobic method of decomposing organic solid matter to recycle it.[9] The process involves decomposing organic material into a humus-like material, known as compost, which can fertilize plants.[10] Composting organisms require four equally important ingredients to work effectively: carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and water.[11][12]
As described in patent application and news reports, Recompose's method entails placement of human corpses in a container along with a composting feedstock of plant material. In reports, this is described as a mixture of woodchips, straw, and alfalfa.[13] Recompose estimates they use 729 cubic feet (20.6 m3) of plant material.[14] The mixture is aerated (and optionally rotated) to encourage the temperature of the mixture to rise until thermophile microbes decompose the body and the feedstock.[7][15] In addition to developing the composting process itself, Spade worked with engineer Oren Bernstein to design containers and frames to compost several bodies within a single complex.[15]
In this manner, the transformation can be sped up to as little as 1–2 months.[7] The soil can be returned to loved ones in containers and scattered, similar to cremains.[16] Recompose estimates that per person, their process yields soil in the amount of 27 cubic feet (0.76 m3) by volume and 1,000 pounds (450 kg) by weight.[14]
Terminology
There are various terms for specific methods of composting human remains. These include:
- Natural organic reduction (NOR) or simply organic reduction, is the term adopted by the State of Washington after it became the first jurisdiction to legalize and regulate a form of human composting. Natural organic reduction is legally defined as "the contained, accelerated conversion of human remains to soil."[17] This term and definition was subsequently adopted by other states in their own codes and regulations.[18][19]
Private companies who perform natural organic reduction have trademarks and patents for specific methods of natural organic reduction. News reports have genericized these terms.
Contraindications and precautions
Persons with certain diseases (such as tuberculosis, Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease, and ebola) are ineligible for human composting due to pathogens that may survive the composting process.[26][27]
Similar to cremation, certain materials in a human body must be handled with care. Implants with batteries (such as pacemakers) or radioactive materials (such as brachytherapy seeds) present risks that require removal before a body is composted. Bone fragments may require pulverization in the middle of the composting process to decompose further. Metals (such as those from hip replacement) must be removed from composted remains.[28][29][30]
In Washington, regulations require the testing of composted remains for levels of toxins including arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury, and selenium, as well as fecal coliform and salmonella pathogens. Remains exceeding limits may not be released into the environment.[31][32]
States that legalized natural organic reduction may have individual restrictions on the handling of organically reduced human remains. These include Colorado's prohibition on growing food with soil from human remains,[33] and California's allowing state or local agencies to prohibit scattering in specific areas.[34]
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Reception
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Proponents say human composting is more economical, environmentally friendly, and respectful of the body and the earth than the methods of disposal that are typically practiced in technologically advanced societies. Cremation uses fossil fuels or large amounts of wood for funeral pyres (both of which generate polluting smoke and release large amounts of carbon), and conventional burial is land-intensive, has a high carbon footprint, and frequently involves disposing of bodily fluids and liquefied organs in the sewer and injecting the body with toxic embalming chemicals. By contrast, human composting, like natural burial, is a natural process and contributes ecological value by preserving the body's nutrient material.[35]
Author and YouTuber Caitlin Doughty, writing in favor of legalization in New York state, argues that the process "fulfills many people’s desire to nurture the earth after dying."[36] An editorial in Undark Magazine argues that "natural organic reduction respects the human body and spirit, supports rather than sullies the earth, and works with nature rather than against it."[37]
Critics say the rapid decomposition process is inappropriate for human bodies. The Catholic Church in the United States, for example has argued that it does not confer the respect due to bodily remains,[38][39][40] though other Catholics have maintained that human composting "fulfill[s] in a more direct way the Biblical declaration that we are dust and to dust we shall return (Genesis 3:19)."[41] Orthodox Jewish interpretations of Halakha religious law oppose the sped-up composting process, saying it lacks appropriate reverence for the dead, with the matter under debate in other variations of Judaism.[42][43]
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Legal status
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Composting of human remains has required explicit authorization from jurisdictions with changes to environmental and professional licensing. Washington was the first U.S. state to legalize, regulate, and license the practice.[35][44][45] Three burial businesses in the state of Washington offer human composting as of December 2022[update].[42][46]
United States
In the United States, rapid human composting has become legally allowed or approved to become allowed in the future in thirteen states as of 2025[update].[47]
- Washington (approved in May 2019, took effect on May 1, 2020)[35][46][44][45]
- Colorado (approved in May 2021, took effect on August 8, 2021)[35][46][48]
- Oregon (approved in June 2021, took effect on January 1, 2022)[35][46][49]
- Vermont (approved in June 2022, took effect on January 1, 2023)[46][50]
- California (approved on September 18, 2022, to take effect in 2027)[39][46][51]
- New York (approved on December 31, 2022, took effect August 7, 2024)[46][44][52]
- Nevada (approved in May 2023, took effect on January 1, 2024)[53]
- Arizona (approved in April 2024)[47][54]
- Delaware (approved in May 2024 "effective immediately")[55]
- Maryland (approved in May 2024, took effect October 2024)[56]
- Minnesota (approved May 2024, to take effect July 2025)[57]
- Maine (approved August 2024, effective immediately)[58]
- Georgia (approved May 2025, effective July 2025)[59]
Federal government
Federal Trade Commission
The Funeral Rule (16 CFR 453) enacted by the Federal Trade Commission is a U.S. federal regulation protecting consumers by requiring funeral providers provide information concerning their goods and services. In 2020, the Commission underwent a formal review of the Rule.
In 2022, it published the results of its review, including a section on "New Forms of Disposition" including natural organic reduction, stating:
The Commission is considering modifying the Rule to explicitly include new methods of disposition, such as alkaline hydrolysis and human natural organic reduction. The Rule could then clarify that such providers could offer direct or immediate services with a reduced basic services fee. The Commission is also considering updating the Rule to adapt to new methods of disposition, for example the Rule requirements to offer and provide disclosures about alternative containers for direct services. The Commission wants to ensure the Rule does not stifle innovation and believes the proposed changes help level the playing field for providers of new alternative methods. [60]
In 2023 the FTC sponsored a panel to discuss natural organic reduction and other new forms of disposition.[61]
United States National Cemetery System
The administrator of the United States National Cemetery System has authorized the placement of "a portion of remains transformed by natural organic reduction" in in-ground burial sections (including green burial sections) and designated scatter gardens at VA national cemeteries that have these options. Those whose remains are scattered or interred in this way may be eligible for memorial markers.[62]
Canada
A National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health study funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada notes that while Canada has yet to legalize the process, "Canadians can access the service in US states such as Washington, the first North American jurisdiction to make it legal." The study notes that the Canadian government should "consider whether inspection or restrictions on the end use of compost transported across borders is required, from jurisdictions where the process is currently permitted, to jurisdictions where it is not."[63]
European Union
A 2023[update] Euronews report noted that within the European Union no national-level government has legalized composting of human remains.[64]
The German state of Schleswig-Holstein approved a pilot for a human composting process dubbed reerdigung ("reburial").[65][66]
In 2024, a research project funded by the French National Research Agency and jointly conducted by the organization Humo Sapiens, the University of Bordeaux, and University of Lille began in with an aim toward a working prototype process by 2026.[67] In 2023, Élodie Jacquier-Laforge authored legislation to legalize the process in the National Assembly.[68]
Groups active in France and Belgium are campaigning for legalization of the process under the name "humusation." Brussels politician Bernard Clerfayt stated his opposition to local legalization, citing a study.[64]
In May 2020, the Health Council of the Netherlands issued an advisory report on the admissibility of new techniques of disposing of the dead. It found that "the available information on human composting is, as yet, insufficient to make possible an assessment." The report reviewed existing guidance in European regulatory frameworks and reports from European institutions about animal composting. It cites a European Food Safety Authority for composting of dead-on-farm pigs, in which the composted remains are sent for incineration and not release into the environment.[69][70]
United Kingdom
Deborah Smith of the UK's National Association of Funeral Directors noted that human composting has not been undertaken in the United Kingdom.[71]
In 2023, the Church of England stated that it is considering the theological, practical and pastoral issues of the practice.[72]
As part of its 13th Programme of Law Reform, the Law Commission for England and Wales is considering regulations for human composting among other new funerary methods. The project started at the beginning of 2024 and will run until spring 2026. It will end with a final report and draft Bill.[73]
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References
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