Considered an alternative to cremation and burial, the environmentally friendly practice is legal in Washington, Colorado and Oregon with more states expected to follow suit in the near future.
Nina Shoen likes the idea of life (plant life) springing from death.
Shoen has a close friend who chose to have her remains made into compost. The process of those remains being broken down into soil that can be used to nurture plants and trees reminded Shoen of the grieving process.
She wants the same thing to be done with her body after she dies.
"I think what resonated with me is that it happens slowly," said Shoen, who works in the tech industry. "Almost like grief happens slowly, and we transform, slowly over time, from one thing to another."
Shoen first found out about human composting before it was even legal in her home state of Washington. She heard Katrina Spade talk about the process and "immediately connected with the idea."
"I knew immediately this was the path for me," said Shoen, who at 54 isn't planning on going anywhere anytime soon. She's a pre-paid member of Recompose, a Seattle funeral home that offers human composting services, founded and led by Spade.
Human composting is part of trend in the funeral industry toward more sustainable and environmentally-friendly burials. So-called green funerals include human composting, as well as other practices like forgoing chemical embalming and choosing green burial materials like biodegradable caskets.
The National Funeral Home Alliance notes that laws regulating after-death care vary from state to state. But a wave of legislation has opened the door to human composting burials for millions of people in recent years.
Washington was the first state to allow human composting, doing so in 2019. Since then, twelve other states - including New York, California, Colorado, Minnesota, Maryland and Georgia ‒ have passed similar laws. And legislation has been introduced in 15 other states, including most recently Texas, Utah, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Indiana.
'You can't do this in your backyard'
Spade told USA TODAY she was working on a master's thesis and dove into the funeral industry when she began asking herself a question: "Why aren't there other alternatives to burial and cremation?"
She knew she wasn't the only person wondering. "People were ready for change in the funeral industry," she recalled. As baby boomers age and begin dying, their adult children are reassessing their own wishes. Greater awareness of the environmental impact of burials and cremations is leading people to seek more sustainable alternatives, as well, Spade said: "It's either burying pollution or burying it."
Recompose brought together engineers and soil scientists, and works with state agencies, departments of health and licensing agencies to ensure composting of human remains is done properly and responsibly, with all the necessary monitoring -- and with the proper respect and decorum that should be part of the end of a human life.
"You can't do this in your backyard," Spade said. "We are a full-service and fully licensed funeral home. When I started floating the idea, there was skepticism (within the funeral industry). But it's fair to say we've seen more funeral directors see this as part of the natural evolution of the industry and a rapid embrace of the process."
According to the National Funeral Directors Association, nearly 62% of people in the United States who died in 2024 were cremated, versus 33.2% who were buried. But 68% of consumers surveyed by the group said that they'd be interested in learning more about "green funerals," up from 55.7% in 2021.
How does human composting work?
Spade said companies like Recompose use a process that mimics the natural process of plant decomposition, where plants biodegrade to become topsoil that then nurtures new life.
"We're adding the human touch and putting rigor and science behind it," she said.
- First, the body is placed into a vessel with a mixture of plant materials, wood chips, straw and alfalfa, calibrated for each individual and cocooning the remains in what Spade called "a perfect environment for microbes."
- The process takes about five to seven weeks. During that time, change happens on a molecular level, resulting in a nutrient-rich topsoil.
- The material is removed from the vessel and is allowed to cure for another three to five weeks before it can be used as nourishment in parks, forests, even gardens.
- Recompose partners with nonprofit conservation groups to donate the soil, or it can be returned to loved ones for their own composting or for scattering.
Return Home, another company that offers human composting services, calls their process "Terramation"; theirs takes about 30 days for the breaking-down process and another 30 days before it can be used as compost.
Why do states need to pass laws about human composting?
State laws cover questions about whether the deceased's body can be taken home; embalming and burial regulations; guidelines for what materials may or may not be used; obtaining death certificates; and transporting and/or transmitting remains.
In nine states -- Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, New York, Michigan, Nebraska and New Jersey -- there are legal requirements to use a commercial funeral home or hire a funeral director, according to the Funeral Consumers Alliance.
While greener alternatives to traditional burials and cremations are growing in popularity, they are not legal in all 50 states.
Spade said passing legislation to allow human composting "has been bipartisan in every state" where it's happened. In Washington, she noted, Republican lawmakers from the eastern part of the state represent a lot of farmers who understood the benefits of the practice, as they'd always composted their livestock.
Are there critics of human composting?
In 2023, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said in a statement that human composting and alkaline hydrolysis (in which the body is dissolved in water and alkali under high temperature and pressure, with any remaining materials dried and pulverized) "fail to satisfy the Church's requirements for proper respect for the bodies of the dead," the Jesuit magazine America reported.
Spade noted that the Catholic Church once opposed cremation, as well, and still holds that a traditional burial is preferred.
Why do some choose human composting?
Sarah Chavez is executive director of the Order of the Good Death, an advocacy group that's part of the "death-positive" movement, helping reframe conversations around death and dying and providing resources on topics including funeral planning, end-of-life issues, funeral practices and costs.
Chavez said the group -- for which Spade is a founding member -- has seen profound changes in the funeral industry over the last decade. "That's amazing when you consider that for almost a century, there's been almost no change," she added.
Funerals came out of people's homes and into a more professionalized realm in the 20th century; but that seemed to take away our ability to personalize and process death in healthy ways, she said: "Our modern funerals aren't connected to anything meaningful to (many people). Death is such a profound experience and finding meaning in it is a part of our nature."
The tide now is turning the other way though; as people seek out something that better reflects their own values, personalities, traditions and preferences.
Human composting is one of the ways people can exercise those choices, she said. Families can decorate their loved one's vessel; spend time with them during the composting process; take their time in grieving; and come away with a tangible piece of the person that can be used to nurture something new.
"Having that soil allows the person who's gone to still be there in a way," she said.
Some object on religious grounds or think composting human remains is disrespectful. But Chavez said it's important to take into consideration a person's wishes. "Who gets to determine what's disrespectful? To me the most respectful thing you can do is honor a person's final wishes."
Nina Shoen has shared her wishes to be composted through Recompose with her mother, her husband and her daughter, who's 12. The idea that she was giving something back to the Earth resonated with her.
"Maybe the saved emissions (by not being buried or cremated) aren't huge," she said. "I felt like this was a gesture. How much more do I need to take from the planet? The soil is part of nature which is part of what we need to restore. More dirt. More gardens. More life."