Unusual way of “burial” of the dead in the United States caused mixed reactions

In matters of “environmental friendliness” of something, at some point you can go to extremes. The “green” agenda in the United States has reached the sacred issue of death and burial. Now in New York they have legalized the composting of people after leaving the other world. The state has already become the sixth in a row where this practice is practiced.

New York Governor Katie Hokul on Saturday, December 31, legalized natural organic reduction, commonly known as human composting, after death.

The legislative move makes the state the sixth to legalize it since 2019. It gives New Yorkers access to an alternative, eco-friendly burial method that is considered environmentally friendly, explains The Guardian.

The deceased, however, cannot be simply thrown into the compost pit, a whole procedure is provided. The remains are delivered to a cemetery corporation certified as an organic processing facility, properly insulated and ventilated, and free of “batteries, battery packs, batteries, radioactive implants, or radioactive devices.”

Washington became the first state to legalize human composting in 2019, followed by Colorado and Oregon in 2021, then Vermont and California later in 2022.

In most cases, the deceased is placed in a reusable, semi-open vessel with a suitable bedding—wood chips, alfalfa, or straw—ideal for the microbes to do their job. In the vessel, the body slowly rotates, thus allowing the “working” microbes to evenly destroy soft tissues. The temperature is set at 55 degrees Celsius. At the end of the process, a cubic yard (approximately 0.76 cubic meters) of nutrient-rich soil is produced, equivalent to 36 bags of soil, which can then be used as fertilizer.

“Anything we can do to turn people away from concrete liners, fancy coffins and embalming, we must do and support,” said Michelle Menter, conservation manager at Greensprings Natural Cemetery in downtown New York. Menter said her business would seriously consider this method.

But here’s what’s curious: Hokul herself was in an uncomfortable position. Claiming more than once that she is a proud Irish-American, and often mentioning how her Irish Catholic roots influenced her own political views, such a decision to legalize composting of the dead is in dissonance. Such a democratization of death was not perceived by everyone as an achievement.

The New York State Catholic Conference in November urged church followers to pressure Hokul to veto the bill. The organization argued that the process “does not provide proper respect for the remains,” reported The Catholic Courier.

“A process that is ideal for returning vegetable scraps to the ground is not necessarily suitable for the human body,” Dennis Post, the organization’s chief executive, said in a statement.

On the other hand, supporters of the Order of the Good Death (an organization founded in 2011. The group advocates natural burial and acceptance of human mortality) called on the governor to put her signature on the document and offered a series of decorative color cards with the words “Punch me” and “I want be a tree” to send to the governor.

“Cremation uses fossil fuels, but burial requires a lot of land and creates a carbon footprint. For many people, turning into soil from which to grow a garden or a tree is very important,” explained Katrina Spade, founder of Seattle-based environmental funeral home Recompose.

Supporters of organic reduction also insist that this process is economical and environmentally friendly: the body is transformed in six to eight weeks. In principle, pilot testing of such a peculiar and in many respects controversial technology showed that soft tissues are completely destroyed within 30 days. After that, relatives will be able to pick up the resulting soil and use it as they wish.

By the way, according to the same company Recompose, the cost of the procedure is $5.5 thousand. In 2020, more than 15 thousand people signed up for the company’s services.