You Can Now Be Composted and Returned to Your Garden as Soil – the End-Of-Life Care Option That’s Appealing to Gardeners

The world’s largest human composting facility just opened for business in Maryland, offering organic reduction as an alternative to traditional burial and cremation. Capable of composting 2,000 humans a year, Earth Funeral’s new 37,000 square foot facility has 126 individual vessels where bodies are turned into soil. A body yields around 250-300 pounds of nutrient-rich soil – that’s around 7 regular retail sacks of compost – and personal testimonies on Earth Funeral's website show the many ways gardeners are using the nutrient-rich soil to remember their loved ones.

Dianne Stanciel from New Jersey added some soil from her husband, Kenneth, to a houseplant – ironically, a struggling houseplant Kenneth hadn’t liked – that’s now thriving. In Washington, Emily spread some of the soil composted from her husband of 53 years, Wayne, on the circle garden of azaleas and wild strawberries they’d created together. Kimberly has signed up for a prepaid plan and given her husband instructions to use her soil among the camellias, lemon trees and Japanese maples growing in the yard she’s nurtured for the past 18 years.

And it begs the question, would you like to be part of your garden forever?

How Are Humans Composted?

In the new Maryland facility, the body is wrapped in a biodegradable shroud and laid along with wildflowers on natural mulch and wood chips in a sealed stainless steel vessel (pictured below). With levels of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and water balanced to create ideal conditions for naturally-occuring microbes to break the organic material down on a molecular level, the mix is composted into soil over 30-45 days. Temperatures reach over 130°F, killing any harmful pathogens, and the soil is independently tested to make sure it’s safe for plants and animals as well as humans.

The compost retains 90% of the body's nutrients, forming an enriched soil full of the components gardeners will recognise from any fertilizer sack. Nitrogen from body proteins fuels leafy growth and supports photosynthesis; phosphorous from bones and DNA promotes root development, flowering and fruiting; and potassium from cellular fluids increases drought resilience. Plant and soil structure is enhanced with calcium from bones, and trace minerals support key plant functions such as chlorophyll formation.

Families can choose the volume of nutrient-rich soil they wish to keep, and the remainder is donated for use in a local conservation project.

Is Human Composting Legal?

It’s probably best to mention that human composting is only legal if done through a licensed premises, but even then, it’s only legal in 14 states. However, transferring bodies interstate by air or ground transport to these states for human composting is permitted across all 50 states, as long as it’s done by licensed professionals and a transit permit is obtained. It’s also legal for the soil to be shipped back to you, making this service available nationwide.

Can Human Compost be Used in the Garden?

Soil created from human remains looks no different from regular garden compost. It's full of nutrients, so rather than using it as a standalone potting soil, think of it as a soil improver. Mix it at a ratio of 10-20% into garden soil or with container potting soil, or use it as a nutritious mulch.

As long as a body is legally composted, and the resulting compost safety-tested, soil created through a terramation process can be used in gardens in many states, but local restrictions vary. While it's prohibited to use human-composted soil to grow crops in some states, most allow the entire volume of soil to be taken home for personal use, whether that’s in a flower bed or to plant a memorial garden or tree. Do check what your locality allows, as even states where human composting has been legalized can have very particular exemptions. For example, in New York soil can only be used in dedicated cemetery grounds or conservation sites.

Selling the soil, using it in a commercial venture or spreading it on public land or someone else’s property without permission from the landowner is banned in most states.

The Rise of Human Composting

The USA is pioneering the process of soil transformation, also known as terramation and natural organic reduction, which first became legal in Washington in May 2020. Elsewhere in the world, a small pilot project is underway in Germany, human composting by freeze-drying is legal (though not operational) in Sweden, and terramation is under consideration in UK and Australia. With human composting now legal in 14 American states, the US is the only country to offer this end of life option on a widespread basis.

As the first state to legalize human composting, most operations are based in Washington. Earth Funeral opened its first facility here in 2020, and other end-of-life organic reduction companies that operate nationally from Washington state include Return Home in Auburn and Recompose in Seattle. While Earth Funeral’s second site in Nevada also served the West, its new East Coast hub (pictured below) in Elkridge, Maryland, marks clear confidence in the trend for human composting.

This East Coast facility is by far the largest of its kind in the world, showing that human composting is now moving beyond a niche concept to become an increasingly popular alternative to burial, green burial or cremation.

How Do You Feel About Being Composted?

Sustainability is a strong factor driving the human composting trend. Burial can leach chemical embalming fluids into the ground, while cremation has high energy needs. Earth Funeral cites that its human composting process has a net CO₂ emission of zero, compared to a typical cremation rating of 535 pounds.

With prices starting from around $6,000, the cost is comparable to that of a burial, green burial or cremation, too. But perhaps the real driver of end of life composting is its personal nature. Depending on your state rules, human composting allows you to return as soil to your yard, or to the gardens of your loved ones – perhaps as part of a legacy garden or used to plant a remembrance tree – or physically contribute to a conservation effort.

Roses to Remember

Roses grow so well in nutrient-rich soil and make an enduring tribute to a lost loved one.