They decided to legalize compost from dead bodies in California (4 photos)

On the one hand, it’s kind of terrifying, but on the other hand, I would like to be useful after death.





In the USA, they believe that this type of burial is the only environmentally friendly one. Just burying bodies in wooden boxes in the ground is harmful - cadaveric poison and all that, burning them is expensive and smoky. But the compost heap is just the thing. A few weeks and the dead man turns into fertilizer.

In Washington, this has been practiced since 2020; in 2023, New York became the 6th state. where composting is practiced. Now California has joined this technology. The state authorities made this decision due to increased interest in this type of burial.



But such a service will be launched only in 2027. It can't open now, and the state cemetery and funeral home's requests for more time to set rules and standards have not yet been resolved.

Currently, the three human composting mortuaries operating in Washington "are reporting steady business. Out-of-state customers, especially Californians, are either flying or driving their deceased loved ones."





On October 6, 2022, in Seattle, Washington, on a table at Recompose, a green funeral home that specializes in human composting, lies a small box of soil that was once human.

The process involves placing the deceased's body in a reusable vessel along with plant material such as wood chips, alfalfa and straw. The organic mixture creates an ideal habitat for natural microbes to do their job, quickly and effectively destroying the body in about a month.



Composting capsule

The end result is 36 bags of nutrient-enriched soil that can be used to plant trees or enrich conservation lands, forests or gardens.