When I die, compost me? Massachusetts, Rhode Island could legalize human composting

When you die, it’s your choice. There’s cremation, embalming, caskets and coffins, or you could just go in ground. In Massachusetts and Rhode Island, a few new choices could soon be legalized.

If you want your remains to join your family garden or even your favorite house plant: legislators are moving to legalize human composting.

Since 2020, seven states have legalized “natural organic reduction,” which essentially means composting a human body. The composting is part of an accelerated process to make a nutrient-rich soil from human remains, which takes about four to six weeks. 

The human body is placed in a large tank with warm air and wood chips, and — much like a regular compost — the material is turned until a soil is formed. According to Earth Funeral, which has human composting facilities on the West Coast, the process yields a cubic yard of soil.

Washington was the first state to legalize human composting, in 2020. The practice is also legal in Colorado, Oregon, Vermont, California, New York, and Nevada.

Earth Funeral calls human composting the most sustainable urban funeral process, noting its relies on renewable energy and releases no CO2 emissions.

Rhode Island, Mass. could legalize ‘burial alternatives’

Rhode Island’s state legislature is hearing the bill to allow human composting for the second year in a row, the Providence Journal reported. In Massachusetts, where the idea is also on its second try in the chamber, lawmakers want to take it a step further to legalize water cremation.

In addition to composting, Massachusetts’s “environmentally-friendly burial alternatives” bill would also legalize alkaline hydrolysis, which is defined as the reduction of human remains to bone fragments using heat, pressure, water and base chemical agents. 

Alkaline hydrolysis is more widely practiced than human composting, but it’s still not legal in every state.

This “water cremation” is more environmentally friendly than traditional cremation and burial by using less fuel and reducing its carbon footprint, according to the Cremation Association. Family members can receive pure white remains after the process.

The bill in the Massachusetts State Senate was sent to committee this week, meaning it may not see session this year.

While the practices are environmentally friendly, some religions don’t approve. The Catholic Church, for example, said last year that both practices do not align with their doctrines, meaning “they fail to manifest the respect for last remains that Catholic faith requires.”