CT to study composting human remains as alternative burial option
Terramation, an emerging process of allowing the remains of dead people to decompose naturally and with less of a carbon footprint than cremation, would become the subject of a working group to study and make recommendations to the 2025 General Assembly, under legislation approved Monday in the Public Health Committee.
The bipartisan vote on a referral from the Environment Committee sends the legislation to the House of Representatives.
If approved there, ratified in the Senate and signed by the governor, the working group — made up of members of state Department of Public Health, the Department of Consumer Protection,
the office of the Chief Medical Examiner and the state funeral industry — would have until next January to make recommendations on the composting process in which bodies are not embalmed, cremated or buried in cemeteries.
Instead, as currently practiced in eight states, including Washington, New York and Vermont, dead bodies are wrapped in shrouds and layered with organic material such as flowers, straw and wood chips, then placed in metal containers with a warm, moist airflow for aerobic decompositions. Within three months a body and the organic matter becomes about 250 pounds of rich soil.
Funeral officials then remove any possible metal objects such as surgically replaced hips and knees, for recycling before
releasing the composted material to families. Loved ones can then handle the remains similar to cremations, where the material can be kept in urns or spread in memorial
gardens and such.
State Rep. Christine Palm, D-Chester, vice chairwoman of the Environment Committee who is a member of the Public Health Committee, said the legislation started out in February at the start of the 13-week budget adjustment session, as a proposal to legalize the process, also called human composting and natural organic reduction. But with the narrow time frame before the May 8 adjournment, it makes more sense to study the issue until next year, she said.
“When you’re dealing with human remains there can be no room for error of any kind,” Palm said. “This is a process that takes about eight to twelve weeks. It’s a very gentle, one might even say sacred way to dispose of human remains, which takes about one eighth of the amount of energy of a cremation. So it’s the most environmental way to dispose of a human corpse.” The State Office of Vital Records would also be represented on the
working group. Other states that allow the process include Arizona, California, Nevada, Colorado and Oregon.
“It’s a bipartisan bill,” Palm said. “It’s an optional bill. It adds to people’s choices about how they want their own remains to be handled. It’s an important option because it produces no carbon into the atmosphere, unlike cremation, and it doesn’t take up any earth. So there’s a preservation of land as well.”