Elizabeth Gillies: Stay Green from Cradle to Grave with Terramation — Decomposition using organic reduction to convert bodies into (fertile) Soil

Yeah, Stay Classy & Stay Green With Terramation

When it comes to funerals, cremation, embalming and casket burials are the most common ways of saying goodbye to our loved ones.

But a new trend, known as ‘body composting’, is taking the US by storm. It offers an environmentally-friendly solution for people looking to stay green on life’s final journey.

The process, called Terramation, is being introduced by US funeral care provider Return Home. Washington recently became the first state in the US to legalize this unique form of decomposition, which uses organic reduction to convert bodies into soil.

Corpses are placed in airtight vessels and surrounded by a bulking mixture of alfalfa and sawdust. These organics quickly accumulate and retain heat naturally, avoiding the costly fossil fuel expenditure of conventional crematoriums.

Human composting: How to stay green after you hit the grave

Conventional cremations use 135 liters of fuel and pump 245 kilograms of CO2 into the atmosphere

“Cremation takes 30 gallons (135 liters) of fuel and pumps about 540 pounds (245 kilograms) of CO2 into the atmosphere, so we’ve devised a system that runs about 90 per cent cleaner than that,” says Micah Truman, CEO of Return Home.

“We use a base of organics where the body is placed, and we simply close the lid. The heat keeps the microbial activity super active and at the end of a month, our body is pretty much transformed completely.

“When we’re done, we have soil that we can give the family.”

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Annual CO2 emissions from cremations exceed 360,000 metric tonnes in the US every year

Conventional cremation methods require fuel to heat bodies to temperatures higher than 650 degrees Celsius.

To put this into perspective, 1.8 million Americans were cremated in 2020, with each ceremony releasing the same amount of greenhouse gas as two tanks of fuel from an average family car. As a result, annual CO2 emissions from these funerals exceeded 360,000 metric tons in the US alone.

Terramation offers a natural solution to this climate dilemma – returning our loved ones to the earth in a sensitive and sustainable fashion.

Cindy Armstrong’s 36-year-old son died from cancer and had asked for his remains to be composted.

“Now that I’ve gone through the process, I’m all for it,” she says.

“He didn’t really like the thought of cremation. So about a year before he passed, he really researched it. And he decided that that is what he wanted. He just wanted to give back to nature.”

While conventional cremation methods produce ashes for loved ones to scatter, terramation produces soil. It is a memento that can be used to fertilize gardens, farms or nearby woodland.

The practice is currently legal in just three US states: Colorado, Oregon and Washington. But with more and more people looking to stay green in the grave, other parts of the nation are hoping to follow suit.

“We’re hearing that there’s about four or five additional states that currently have natural organic reduction on their books,” says Rob Goff, Executive Director of Washington State Funeral Director Association.

“For so many years, cremation or burial were the only choices. We’re very fortunate to finally pass a legislative bill that allows human composting to take place.”