Is California ready for ‘human composting’ as an alternative to casket burial, cremation?
During a rafting trip in the West, Angela Bean took a palm full of her son’s ashes and spread them across rushing water. Her 27-yearold son, who died in a fatal fall from a pickup truck in 2015, had told her he wanted to donate his organs and be cremated.
Years later, Bean found out about human composting, an alternative burial method to cremation and conventional casket burials that had been legalized in Washington and other states.
“If California had that option back then, I know he would’ve liked to have been composted,” the Oakland resident said about her son, who studied natural resources at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
Now, it may soon be legal in California.
Assembly Member Cristina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens) this year introduced Assembly Bill 351, a bill that would make California the fifth state to legalize human composting. This is the third time California lawmakers are considering legalizing the alternative method, a proposal that has strong bipartisan support. Garcia said it is not entirely clear to her why the bill failed in 2020 and 2021, but she assumes it’s because the topic feels daunting.
But this year, she’s confident it will fare better.
“Talking about what happens to our bodies when we die makes people feel uncomfortable or icky,” she said.
Human composting — or natural organic reduction — is an eco-friendly alternative burial option to the traditional casket burial or cremation methods. When composted, a body is placed in a steel vessel and buried in wood chips and other biodegradable materials that allow the body to naturally decompose over a 30-day period.
Once the body decomposes fully into soil, it is then returned to the family’s possession, similar to the practice
of cremation. Natural organic reduction has gained in popularity mainly because it produces far fewer greenhouse gases than other burial methods and is less invasive of a process.
“I want to become a plum tree,” Garcia told The Times, saying if the law passes, she would choose to be composted.
Washington was the first state to legalize human composting in 2019, and Colorado, Oregon and Vermont soon followed. Massachusetts lawmakers are also considering legalizing the burial method, and are expected to vote on the measure this summer.
Garcia, as both a Catholic and Mexican American, celebrates the Day of the Dead and is a caretaker for her own family — a cultural practice that she says has left her curious about what options she wants to have during her own death planning.
The Catholic Church has been an outspoken opponent of the bill, arguing that it is an undignified practice. The California Catholic Conference, listed as the only opponent to AB 351, did not respond to a request for comment from The Times.
Garcia said while she respects the religious sentiment that opposes human composting as an option, she does not want to let religious doctrine control what
people can do with their bodies once they die.
Supporters of the legislation say it will introduce an eco-friendly option in an otherwise polluting industry.
Residents are hoping the bill passes as they confront their own mortality, such as a Sacramento woman with Stage 4 cancer who asked to not give her name to protect her medical privacy.
“When I saw the bill was passed in Washington, it was like, ‘eureka!’ This is it for me,” she said.
Transporting her body out of state once she dies would be an added cost and burden on her family, she said. By legalizing composting in California, she and many other residents would have more affordable and local access.
Recompose, a Seattle-based company and the first funeral home to build a human composting facility in the country, places the body into a steel vessel — each 8 feet long and 4 feet tall — that is then filled with wood chips, alfalfa and straw. Microbes enable bodies to decompose into one cubic yard of nutrient-rich soil within about a month.
The service, which costs about $7,000, is slightly more affordable than a casket funeral and more costly than cremation.
“We’ll never be the least expensive funeral option,” said Katrina Spade, the company’s chief director.