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After Washington, Oregon, Colorado and Vermont, it’s California’s turn to legalize “human compost”, a form of green alternative to burial.
Ecological and economical, this “natural organic reduction” will allow people wishing to recycle their bodies into compost and reduce their carbon footprint.
Human compost would be less toxic for the planet
In the event of death, Californians have until now only had three options available: cremation, embalming or burial. From now on, they will be able to opt from 2027 for a new 100% natural solution: “terramation”, also called “natural organic reduction” in the law (AB 351).
This technique, consisting of placing the body of a deceased person in a large metal container filled with organic products (straw, wood shavings, alfalfa, etc.), accelerates the natural process of decomposition of the body.
In just 60 days, the body is indeed transformed into real soil. The relatives of the deceased can then recover these 100 kilos of cultivable land to distribute it in their garden and thus honor the memory of the deceased.
Important detail: according to France info, this process would only cost between 4000 and 5000 dollars instead of 6000 dollars on average for a cremation and 7000 for a burial.
Businesses get involved too
This “conversion, accelerated and in a closed environment, of human remains into humus” has already attracted several companies, such as “Recompose“, a Seattle-based company that has believed in this concept for a decade already.
Before adopting this technique “natural, safe, sustainable and which allows significant savings in terms of CO2 emissions and land use”, the company carried out various tests on volunteers in order to study the decomposition of the human body.
It remains to be seen whether France will follow America’s example or whether this “natural recycling” of the deceased will put off the government for the time being.