‘Human composting’ is the eco-friendly way to process your remains after death

You’ve probably thought about what you want to happen to your remains when you pass on.

While mulling over the choice between burial and cremation, though, you may not know that there’s a third way to be laid to rest: human composting.

It sounds grim, but the practice actually offers an eco-friendly alternative to traditional methods and is becoming more popular across the pond.

Washington joined Sweden in legalising rapid human composting in 2020, becoming the first US state to do so. The likes of New York and California have since passed legislation to do the same, making a total of six states that allow it or will in future.

So-called natural organic reduction has also taken off globally thanks to social media, as green funeral companies spread the word about sustainable ways to be laid to rest.

But what does it involve?

To start the human composting process, bodies are placed into specially-designed vessels with natural materials like wood chips, alfalfa and straw. Loved ones say their goodbyes at a ‘laying in’ service, where they can place items into the container before the composting process begins.

Microbes then start the process of decomposition, which takes between 30 and 50 days depending on the specific methods used. Once the body has turned into soil, it’s screened for inorganic matter (like pacemakers or metal implants) and allowed to aerate for a further month.

When the process is complete, the soil can be taken home by family, scattered locally, or donated to conservation efforts by the funeral home. The average body creates around one cubic yard of soil, supplying nutrients to plants and allowing a person to help support new life even after their death.

Recomposition has a smaller environmental impact than cremation or burial as it requires no fossil gases, embalming fluid, wood or concrete. It also leads to carbon sequestration, with each person who chooses human composting saving up to 1.4 metric tons of carbon (equivalent to about 40 propane tanks) compared to traditional methods.

Far from turning our stomachs, the content about human composting online is informative and interesting – and it’s convincing hordes of people to consider a different type of deathcare.

Return Home Terramation – which offers human composting services from a facility in Auburn – has over 662,000 followers on TikTok, racking up 12.4million likes. Meanwhile, Seattle-based Recompose boasts 29,000 Instagram followers.

Both accounts speak about what this form of body disposal entails, debunking myths and explaining how meaningful these funerals can be – one particularly moving video from Return Home shows a bereaved young man having his hair placed into his best friend’s casket in tribute.

Here in the UK human composting is not yet legal, but funeral care providers have claimed demand for sustainable alternatives is on the rise.

Not only is it better for the planet, natural organic reduction can work out cheaper than burial or cremation and offers a unique way to honour the deceased outside of religious ceremonies.

Local authorities are running out of burial space and many are reconsidering the way they want to be remembered after they go. So while it may seem scary on the surface, human composting may one day become the norm.

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