![](\"https:\/\/cdni.rt.com\/files\/2019.04\/thumbnail\/5cba88bffc7e93ee128b4607.jpeg\")
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Washington is poised to become the first US state to legalize the \u201cnatural organic reduction\u201d of corpses, a.k.a. human composting, meaning an eco-friendly lifestyle need no longer stop at death.<\/p>\n
Governor Jay Inslee, a Democrat, is expected to sign a bill within the week to legalize \u201corganic reduction<\/em>\u201d and \u201cliquid cremation<\/em>\u201d (a dissolving process technically called alkaline hydrolysis) as alternatives to run-of-the-mill burial and cremation. Inslee is campaigning for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination on an environmentalist platform, after all, and what\u2019s more environmentally friendly than using one\u2019s own remains to fertilize the earth? If it passes, the bill will take effect next month.<\/p>\n \u201cLiquid cremation<\/em>\u201d is legal in eight other states, though it has met with some religious opposition from Catholic clergy, who believe it doesn\u2019t show proper respect for the dead, since they are essentially poured down the drain. On the bright side, the process produces just a quarter of the carbon emissions of regular cremation \u2013 which was also opposed by the Catholic Church until the 1960s.<\/p>\n \u201cOrganic reduction<\/em>,\u201d however, is a new idea, born of seven years of research by designer Katrina Spade and a team of scientists she hired to prove the idea of turning humans into fertilizer was both safe and feasible. After showing that decomposing human bodies in soil met or exceeded legal standards for hazardous byproducts \u2013 metals, pathogens, and other contaminants that might harm the living \u2013 the aspiring corpse-mulcher was able to get her dream taken seriously by \u201cdeath-care experts<\/em>\u201d and ultimately lawmakers. The Washington Senate and House passed the bill with strong bipartisan support earlier this year.<\/p>\n Now Spade stands to cash in big-time from early adopters seeking an eco-friendly way to get rid of Grandma as the founder and CEO of Recompose, the first \u201cnatural organic reduction funeral home<\/em>\u201d in the country. She plans to charge about $5,500 for the procedure \u2013 steep, certainly, but less than the $7,000 the average burial costs \u2013 and hopes to have her parlor up and running within two years.<\/p>\n And how exactly does one compost a human? The corpse is placed in a container with straw, wood chips, and alfalfa, and thermophilic bacteria are added, with air periodically pumped in to keep things moving. In about a month, the body is reduced to a cubic yard of compost, which the family can take home as they would the ashes from a cremation. Happy gardening!<\/p>\n Like this story? Share it with a friend!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Via RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Washington is poised to become the first US state to legalize the \u201cnatural organic reduction\u201d of corpses, a.k.a. human composting, meaning an eco-friendly lifestyle need no longer stop at death. Governor Jay Inslee, a Democrat, is expected to sign a bill within the week to legalize \u201corganic reduction\u201d and \u201cliquid cremation\u201d (a dissolving process technically […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":403414,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-403413","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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