Coffee, tea and Aunt MiMi? You could soon compost your loved ones' remains

Some call it natural organic reduction. Others prefer soil transformation.

It’s also known as terramation. In some corners, recomposition. Those who err toward the literal might call it human composting. And for the poets: the circle of life.

Whatever you call it, the process of rapidly turning a human body into soil could soon join the legal methods of body disposition in Arizona.

Touted as an environmentally friendly way of being laid to rest, natural organic reduction has spread rapidly across the country since it was legalized in Washington state in 2019.

Now, seven states have embraced the process, and at least 13 more, including Arizona, are considering it.

A personal project, a comfort at the end of life

The boom in human composting can be traced back to a woman named Katrina Spade.

Spade, the founder and CEO of Seattle-based funeral home Recompose, started thinking about the process in 2012 when she contemplated the lack of sustainable options after death.

She pursued the idea as a “personal design project,” she told The Arizona Republic. It became the subject of her thesis, and then, as Spade realized she wasn’t the only one who liked the idea of being turned into soil after her death, it became the kernel for a business.

She knew animals could be composted and figured there was no practical reason humans couldn’t be, too. But a significant amount of research lay ahead of her about how it would work and the legal barriers that stood in the way.

At the time, most states only permitted burial, cremation and donation to science. (Another method, known as aquamation, has become more widespread over the past decade.)

As her research progressed, Spade started working with a lobbyist and getting the issue in front of politicians.

“I would go to Olympia with a small bag and woodchips, alfalfa and straw, which is the material we compost bodies in,” she told The Republic. “And then in the other hand, a small amount of livestock mortality compost.”

She would show politicians the compost and explain how meaningful natural organic reduction could be to a family.

“Being able to use that soil to plant a tree can provide a lot of comfort at end of life,” she said.

It was legalized in 2019, and Recompose started to offer services in December the next year. Since then, it has composted around 350 people, Spade said.

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How does human composting work?

The proposed legislation in Arizona defines natural organic reduction as “the contained, accelerated conversion of human remains to soil."

The body goes into a vessel along with natural biodegradable materials — things like wood chips, straw or flowers. The vessel is sealed, and then microbes get to work, busily decomposing the body.

As this process occurs, the controlled vessel is exposed to oxygen and reaches temperatures up to and exceeding 131 degrees Fahrenheit.

After six weeks, give or take, soft tissues and the natural materials have transformed into a rich soil, about a cubic yard of it. Any medical devices or implants are removed, while teeth and bones are crushed into a fine powder and re-added to the material.

Loved ones can then take home the soil and use it as they please. Several funeral homes that provide human composting services also offer the possibility of donating it for use in the community.

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Arizona lawmaker sees composting as 'one option'

In 2024, natural organic reduction landed in the Arizona Statehouse.

The legislation, House Bill 2081, is being sponsored by two Republican lawmakers: Rep. Laurin Hendrix in the House and Sen. T.J. Shope in the Senate.

The bid is being driven by Natural Organic Reduction of Arizona, a start-up business whose founders hired lobbyist Jake Hinman to advise on the legislative process and help find bill sponsors.

NORAZ did not respond to a request made through Hinman to speak with The Republic. One of its founders is a man named Regis Wiegand, an entrepreneur whose prior business ventures include selling manicure products for cats.

Hendrix said he had read about natural organic reduction in the news before being approached as a potential sponsor.

“Some people see it as a bit ghoulish at first, and then they think about it, and they might warm up a bit,” he told The Republic. “It’s not for everybody.”

At a recent committee hearing, Hinman was the only speaker on the bill.

“You can imagine in the springtime when the flowers bloom there’s a tremendous spiritual connection for these grieving family members,” he told lawmakers.

After Hinman’s presentation, the bill sailed through committee with zero opposition, a couple of questions and a joke about changing the name of the bill to The Circle of Life.

It passed through the House on Feb. 6 on a 47-8 vote and was then sent to the Senate.

Similar legislation did not go so smoothly in a committee hearing in Utah last month.

According to a report in the Salt Lake Tribune, the Utah board of funeral directors said it opposed the bill, and the legislation was tabled to address concerns over where the compost might be used.

The equivalent Arizona funeral director’s board was disbanded in 2023, and licensing operations were assumed by the state Department of Health.

The Arizona Funeral, Cemetery and Cremation Association, an industry group, said in a statement to The Republic it doesn’t mind one way or the other.

"AFCCA is not actively advocating for specific legislation for natural organic reduction, but we are not obstructing the possibility of this form of disposition being implemented in Arizona,” the statement said.

“Our commitment is to support funeral professionals and funeral consumers, regardless of the manner in which they choose to operate."

Among the questions raised in Utah was this: If the soil was used in a private garden bed, would that have to be disclosed to a future buyer?

No, proponents say. The soil is more akin to ashes from cremation than it is to a decomposing body. There’s just a whole lot more of it. (Arizona has no state laws regarding where ashes can be scattered, but it is still prohibited in certain places, such as the Navajo Nation and in Grand Canyon National Park.)

“The reality is that over time, that material is being absorbed into the soil, taken up by trees and plants, eventually those molecules and atoms are moving on like all nature does,” Spade said.

“I think that would be a big overstep of regulations to worry about that long term. Really, what we’re creating is compost like any other compost.”

'Precomposing' for those who like to plan

As a gardener and a farmer, Hendrix said, natural organic reduction is something he would contemplate for himself.

“I respect that it’s not for everyone,” he said, “but it’s an option.”

An option that is increasingly sought out by grieving loved ones — and, in other cases, selected in life.

Recompose has a program called Precompose in which people can plan and prepay their own funeral arrangements. So far, Spade said, they have about 1,500 takers, aged from their 20s through to their 80s.

It might appeal to the environmentally conscious, an adventurous hiker, or someone who simply loved being in their garden. The idea of being returned to the earth in death, of helping something else grow — it speaks to a lot of people, Spade said.

“I am obviously completely biased,” she added, “but I think that human composting will be mainstream one day.”

Lane Sainty is a storytelling reporter at The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. She writes about interesting people, places and events across the 48th state. Reacher her at lane.sainty@arizonarepublic.com.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Lawmakers could legalize human composting in Arizona. Here's what we know