A Deeper Look at Human Composting
- Emily Kalka
- Mar 31
- 12 min read
Human composting may be coming to Oklahoma, and a lot of people have some big feelings about it. And hey, I get it. When I first heard about it five years ago, I too thought it was strange and weird. The ick factor came in. I was working on a magazine issue on death, and one of the articles I had planned was looking into new/unconventional options people were choosing for disposition, and composting was one of the newest.
But me being me, I got curious. Even without the excuse of the article, I wanted to dig into it a bit more so I could better understand it and why people were choosing composting after death. Interestingly enough, once I did this, I realized it wasn’t as icky as I initially thought. So, since it seems that people seem to have a lot of questions (and also some misunderstandings), I thought I would put together this article/blog post/whatever you want to call it, to share what I’ve learned and also dig into what the actual bill in Oklahoma is about.
I don’t think it needs to be said, but I’ll say it anyway. I’m not here to convince you that you should be composted. This is simply for educational purposes to help folks have a better understanding of it. And to show that it’s really not as scary as some are making it out to be. What happens to your body when you're dead is your choice (as long as it’s legal). Something that I think a lot of the discussions and comments I’m seeing are missing is that people make these decisions for personal reasons. It could be religious or spiritual. It could be something else. At the end of the day, if it’s legal and not harming anyone (stay with me -- this section is coming up later), then who cares? We can discuss human composting without resorting to schoolyard taunts and insults.
Personally, I don’t want to be embalmed and can’t understand why people do. But it’s their choice, and I respect that. I don’t go around calling them names or insulting them simply because it’s not what I want. All I ask is that you bear with me, read the entire post, and then, if you still have concerns, questions, and so on, we can have an adult conversation about it.
A great video to watch that breaks down a lot of the misunderstandings better than I could is this one by Caitlin Doughty (a licensed funeral director, author, and activist). I have it listed at the end of this with others, but I think it’s excellent, so I wanted to put it up earlier.
Okay? Okay. Here we go. Buckle up, it’s a long one.
The History
I think the first step to understanding human composting is knowing how it came about and the reasoning behind why people started looking into it. One of the people who first started looking into it was a woman named Katrina Spade. Back in 2011, she was working on a thesis for architecture school about how dead bodies are handled in heavily populated areas, primarily looking into green options. Of course, green/natural burial (no embalming, no vault, just a shroud or simple casket and into the ground) was considered the best option, however this is difficult in big cities where land is premium. So, Katrina started looking into other solutions. She was inspired by the farming practice of composting livestock and used that as the basis. Studies into human composting began in 2015 at Western Carolina University with the department of forensic anthropology. (Source)
Another pilot program and study was carried out at Washington State University by soil scientists in partnership with Recompose (the organic reduction facility started by Spade). (Source)
What all of these programs and studies found was that a human body could be safely composted within a controlled four- to six-week period. They also helped to inform the best methods, practices, and testing for the soil to make sure that it’s safe. I think it’s important to know that the scientists doing the studies worked primarily in soil and composting with decades of research into what makes soil safe and unsafe. (Source)
In 2019, Washington became the first state to legalize human composting, with 13 more states following. Oklahoma will be the 15th, if the bill passes the Senate.
What Is it and How Does it Work?
The basic process is the same; the exact materials used may differ slightly from facility to facility. Funeral providers start with cleaning the body (as with most burial/disposition offerings). It is then placed in a vessel or pod, along with natural materials like wood chips, alfalfa (this seems to be a common denominator), grass, hay, or sawdust. This is to help encourage the decomposition process so that the body is broken down into soil over roughly a month, rather than the months or years it would take if buried in the ground. The vessel is heavily monitored throughout to make sure the right temperature and moisture levels are kept. Another big ingredient is oxygen -- this is needed to encourage aerobic decomposition. This all works together to speed up the natural process that the body goes through as it breaks down into soil.
Side note - a lot of the facilities that have videos up, you can see that they often have pictures of the deceased posted on the outside of the vessels, which I think is a sweet touch.
Okay, back to the process
Once that phase is done, the remains are taken from the vessel, and whatever medical devices may be left behind are removed and recycled if possible, or disposed of if not. Any bone fragments left are broken down into dust. The soil is then left to cure for a bit longer, and then it is tested to make sure that it meets all the regulations set by the state. The tests are looking for things like fecal coliform, arsenic, cadmium, mercury, selenium, and other potentially harmful things. Once they are deemed safe, the remains are then returned to the family to do with as they choose. In some states, funeral providers offer families the opportunity to donate some of the soil to non-profits that they partner with, and the remains go to help with reforestation and other land conservation projects.
Different facilities have different services on offer, but from what I’ve seen, they give families the chance to decide how they would like to do things and how involved they would like to be. Usually, if the family would like, they can help with covering their loved one in wood chips and alfalfa. It’s very touching and done with the utmost respect to the deceased and their families.
Is It Safe?
I think this is the biggest question on people’s minds, and a lot of it comes from the very real (and valid) ick factor that comes from dead bodies. According to the World Health Organization, dead bodies in general do not pose any risks to the living. Pathogens can’t survive long in dead bodies and therefore can’t be passed on to the living. The main risks are fecal matter contaminating water sources, which can spread some diseases. However, this isn’t an issue with human composting, as by the time the process is complete, any potentially dangerous pathogens are long gone (the body and decomposition is wild, folks). Also, during the process, the deceased are kept in vessels or pods where fecal matter can’t leak out.
This article by the WHO outlines a lot of information about the risks of dead bodies, and while it’s about victims of natural disasters, I think it can help.
I think an important thing to note is that decomposition breaks down pretty much everything in a human body, including pathogens, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and DNA. With composted remains, most of these things are gone by the end of the process, and any that might remain are well below safety levels set by the EPA and DEQ. Of course, there are standards and regulations set by each state that funeral homes must follow to ensure that the remains are safe before they are returned to the family.
Also, I’m not sure how people hear human composting and jump directly to “we’re eating people!” but I suppose that’s just how my brain works. Everything I’ve seen so far (and I’ll talk about this more later), composted remains are used for conservation efforts, trees, flower gardens. No one has mentioned food production, but I digress.
This is a great video by Caitlin Doughty (Ask a Mortician) to watch. It doesn’t get into human composting, but it has a lot of great information about decomposition, the funeral industry as it currently is, some things you may not know about fire cremation and embalming. I highly recommend a lot of her content, and especially her book “From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death.” It’s a great look at death culture around the world from a place of curiosity and respect. Which takes us to the next point…
But Isn’t That Desecration of a Body?
Here’s the thing, as I’ve pointed out, different people have different ideas on what is or isn’t a sacred way to handle a dead body. What you might think is a respectful way to handle a body may not be so to someone else. I think it’s interesting to note that a lot of the things being said along these lines about human composting are pretty much the same things that were said about cremation, and now it’s a popular option. The Catholic Church didn’t even allow cremation of its members until the 1960s, and it was one of the biggest proponents against it.
People already plant trees or get those plant pods with human ashes. This is pretty much the same thing. Except where human ashes actually can’t help anything to grow, human compost can.
If you talk to people who want human composting, or whose loved ones have chosen it, to them, it’s a peaceful, gentle, beautiful thing. A way to be part of the circle of life (bonus points if you started singing that in your head). Most people want to keep some of the remains in an urn or container, or spread it on their flower gardens or use it for trees or conservation projects, anyway. And I think they should be allowed that choice.
Personally, I don’t like the idea of putting my body filled with known carcinogens into the ground, in an overly expensive casket, enclosed in a cement block (as I said before), and potentially putting my family and loved ones in a large amount of debt for my funeral. I have it written explicitly in my death plan that under no circumstances am I to be embalmed. While I would prefer a natural burial over all other options (already looking at a natural cemetery in Stillwater), I’m open to alkaline hydrolysis (water cremation), composting (with my remains used for flowers and trees - maybe grow some tulips, my fave flower), and, if none of that is feasible, then cremation. But if you do want to be embalmed, again, do it. Just because I don’t want it doesn’t mean I’m going to try to talk you out of it or shame you for that. Or tell you, “Ew, that’s so gross!” Because you’re making that decision based on your personal beliefs and convictions, just as I am and everyone else is. No one is forcing you to be composted or anything else.
What Does the Oklahoma Bill Say?
I read through it, though I encourage everyone to give it a look. The beginning of it is a lot of admin information, i.e., anyone who would like to offer this service must be licensed according to current funeral home licensing laws. It can only be done at licensed facilities. It also sets all the fees for getting all the licenses (natural organic reduction is the highest at $750). Other info includes:
Facilities must undergo inspections by the state funeral board and follow rules set by the board, such as reasonable sanitation of such establishments, including necessary drainage, ventilation, and necessary and suitable instruments for the business or profession of embalming and funeral directing.
Reasons why an establishment can revoke a license (felony, gross malpractice, false advertising, cremating or reducing more than one body in a space, etc.)
Cremation, embalming, or reduction can only take place in a facility licensed for such things.
Once the process is completed, cremated or reduced remains must be removed from the vessel and everything must be thoroughly cleaned so there’s no comingling.
Remains can’t be divided without the express permission of the family.
Requires that facilities identify remains and set up a system to keep them identified through the entire process.
Clearly states all of the requirements for equipment, monitoring, buildings, etc., which will keep the process sanitary and safe. (Like… insanely detailed, down to having sinks in specific rooms).
Sets the requirements for what is and isn’t allowed to be in the remains once completed (reduced remains have less than one-hundredth (.01) milligram/kilogram dry weight of any physical contaminants)
Here is a part that I think will help, maybe ease some concerns about safety. There’s an entire section that lists out specific things that must be tested for and the acceptable levels.
Develop and use a reduction process in which the reduced remains from the process do not exceed the following limits:
metal and other testing parameters limit (mg/kg dry weight), unless specified,
fecal coliform less than one thousand (1,000) most probable number per gram of total solids (dry weight), or
Salmonella less than three (3) most probable number per four (4) grams of total solids (dry weight),
cadmium less than or equal to seven and one-tenths (7.1) parts per million (ppm),
lead less than or equal to one hundred fifty (150) ppm,
mercury less than or equal to five (5) ppm,
Arsenic less than or equal to eleven (11) ppm,
selenium less than or equal to eighteen (18) ppm;
It then outlines the testing process, which I won’t get into because this will be even longer, and most people (myself mostly included) won’t understand it anyway. But there are pretty detailed guidelines here.
Also, from what I understand, composted remains will be equal to cremated remains, meaning all the current regulations apply. Mostly, they can be spread on private property. Public property, you have to follow whatever regulations or ordinances apply. This law also does not negate the current law that makes it a felony to sell human remains, so funeral homes can’t go selling them to commercial operations, farms, etc.
If I eat produce that’s been fertilized with human compost, am I eating Grandma?
No, you’re not. First of all, plants can’t absorb human DNA. Whether you spit on it or use human compost, it will not change anything genetically about the vegetable (that takes far more complicated work in a lab). So, that cucumber is just that -- a cucumber. Soil scientists have said that human compost is no better or worse than any other composted material.
Also, as mentioned earlier, by the time human compost reaches the point where it's returned to the family, it no longer has anything in it that makes it human. It’s, well, dirt. And honestly, that’s what our bodies have been turning into (unless cremated) since the dawn of time. Back in the day, when everyone was buried in a pine box or shrouds, the body would break down (as would the shroud and eventually the pine box) and become one with the earth, releasing nutrients into the ground that were then taken in by whatever plant life was around.
I suppose if you ate the dirt itself, maybe? But again, it’s just dirt at this point—no tissue, blood, DNA, etc. Also, as I’ve stated before, it doesn’t really seem like people are using it for food production, but on the off chance someone does/is, it doesn’t make the food unsafe.
Is it the same as the poop fertilizer?
No. Completely different things and processes. Biosolids come from wastewater treatment plants, which means it’s a whole bunch of people contributing to it, plus industrial waste, so you have a higher risk of contamination. And it has a completely different filtering process.
Human composting is one single body, and it’s decomposition, which (I feel like I’ve said this a million times, but whatever) flushes out most, if not all, of any of the potentially bad things that could be in the body at death. (Science and the human body are wild, folks. I could go on a tangent about body farms and decomposition studies, but I won’t… For the record, there was a point in time when I wanted to be a forensic pathologist, which is where a lot of my interest in the subject comes from… Everyone can blame Mom for introducing me to CSI…)
Does it smell?
Again, nope. Facilities that offer human composting must abide by licensing standards, including those set by DEQ and EPA. This means they have filters in place so that when you visit, you shouldn’t smell anything. (If you can, it probably means something is broken or rules aren’t being followed, in which case, an investigation is probably warranted.) When you get the remains back, they also don’t smell, because decomposition is completed. It should smell like dirt or potting soil.
I’ve gone on for a very long time, and I’m sure I’m still missing some things, but I hope this can help. I’m going to end it with links/summaries to some of the videos I’ve linked through the article, and I recommend you give them a look.
Human Composting - Lauren the Mortician
A visit to Return Home in Seattle that goes through their process and how they work with the families.
Human composting: The rising interest in natural burial - CBS Sunday Morning
News report on human composting that includes an interview with a woman whose brother chose human composting.
Let’s Visit the Human Composting Facility! - Caitlin Doughty (Ask a Mortician)
Caitlin visits Recompose, the human composting facility started by Katrina Spade, going through the issues, the process, the history and more.
We Transform Human Remains Into Soil For a Living | Refinery29
Another deeper look at Return Home and gets more into the day-to-day. They also take you to a conservation area where families can opt to put the remains.
Are You There Fox News? It’s Me, Human Composting
Caitlin Doughty breaks down some of the misunderstandings and misstatements about human composting from Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck.
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