New York makes human composting after death legal
Jack Birle
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New York became the sixth state since 2019 to legalize human composting after death after Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) signed the bill into law Saturday.
Natural organic reduction, or human composting as it is more commonly known, is a process of burial that has a human body put into a container with plants to allow the body to decompose and be part of the nutrient-rich soil.
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The method is seen as a greener way for burial rather than more traditional options such as cremation.
Katrina Spade, who founded a funeral home in Seattle, Washington, which provides human composting services, told the Associated Press the method is “impactful” for the environment.
“Cremation uses fossil fuels and burial uses a lot of land and has a carbon footprint,” Spade told the outlet. “For a lot of folks, being turned into soil that can be turned to grow into a garden or tree is pretty impactful.”
The bill has received pushback from some groups, including the New York State Catholic Conference, who called the bill “inappropriate” considering the “care” human remains should be treated with, in a letter to Hochul advocating her to veto the legislation.
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“Composting is something we as a society associate with a sustainable method of eliminating organic trash that otherwise ends up in landfills. But human bodies are not household waste, and we do not believe that the process meets the standard of reverent treatment of our earthly remains. We have laws in our state and across the nation prohibiting desecration of a human body, illegal burial of a human body, and other abuses against the human body,” the letter said.
The first state to legalize human composting was Washington in 2019, followed by Colorado, Oregon, Vermont, and California in the following years.