The practice of human composting now allowed in New York

Ecological death is digging its hole in the United States. New York State has just authorized the practice of human composting. It is the last US state to do so, which means that this funeral approach is now legal throughout the United States.

At a time when ecological questions are gaining ground in everyone’s minds, the subject of death – burial or cremation – has led to an alternative still unknown in France: human composting.

This method of burial, or should we say humusation, consists of place the body of the deceased in a steel coffin containing wood shavings, alfalfa and straw. The micro-organisms naturally present in these plants will then take care, for about a month, of transforming everything into a cubic meter of compost, which can be reused to enrich the soil. We are talking about “natural organic reduction” or of “terracing“.

Banned in France, this funeral method was authorized for the first time in 2019 in Washington State. Other states soon fell in line.

If the idea of ​​decomposing gradually can put off, it could however make it possible tosave more than a ton of carbon compared to traditional cremation or burial, according to Recompose, the flagship company in the field. With in fine a very fertile compost, to cultivate beautiful flowers, beautiful vegetables or to grow trees, which will store carbon themselves.

Another advantage of this approach is the reduction of the space needed for the deceased, since each coffin is emptied after a month, where our cemeteries often lack space to accommodate our dead.

At the microphone of the New York Post, the company Return Home hailed “a big step forward for the accessibility of ecological death care on a national scale”. A point of view that the Catholic bishops of the State of New York do not share, for whom the bodies should not be treated as “household waste”.

Legal in Sweden, human composting is prohibited in France, as are natural burials, without a coffin or in a biodegradable coffin. An option notably authorized in the United Kingdom.