What if, like in the United States, we authorized human composting?

• New York becomes the sixth US state to legalize humanization.

  Either the transformation of the body of a deceased into compost which will give life again..

• Proponents of this alternative present it as more ecological than the two classic funeral rites, burial or cremation.

• In France, however, this third way is still prohibited, but associations are pushing for it and a growing number of citizens are interested in it.

Gently transforming the human body into soil… This is the promise of Return Home, a funeral company in Auburn, near Seattle (United States) with its “Terramation” process.

A poetic name for compost made from human bodies.

The process is done in three steps.

The body of the deceased is first placed in a reusable, semi-open container with a suitable bedding made of alfalfa, straw and wood shavings, just to put the microbes in the right conditions to work.

A month later and after crushing the bones, we obtain a cubic meter of nutrient-rich soil that Return Home lets rest for another thirty days.

Only then is this land returned to the family and can be used as fertilizer.

New York, the sixth American state to take the plunge

Such treatment of a remains is prohibited in France, recalls Michel Kawnik, founder and president of the French Association of Funeral Information (Afif).

“There are only two possible modes of treatment, either burial [burial underground] or cremation [burning the body and reducing it to ashes], he explains.

And in all cases, coffining is mandatory.

In the United States, on the other hand, things are moving.

Washington State was the first to legalize human composting in 2019. Colorado and Oregon followed in 2021, then Vermont and California in 2022. At the start of 2023, it is the turn of New York State to take the plunge, reports

.

Laetitia Royant, co-author, with Brigitte Lapouge-Déjean of

(ed. Living Earth) is convinced that other States will follow… and that France will eventually get started, too.

A senator had already raised the question of its legalization in October 2016 and a Modem MP also tabled a meaningful amendment in 2021. “The two initiatives were quickly rejected, but two associations - Humusation France and Humus Sapiens - were created l year and continue to make this request", specifies the expert.

The promise of a real return to the land

Beyond that, Laëtitia Royant like Michel Kawnik note a growing interest of citizens for burial methods that are more respectful of the environment.

The proof is: nearly 270,000 people were cremated in France in 2020, which represents 40% of all deaths.

A figure that has been constantly increasing since 1975, according to Afif.

"A study of the funeral services of the city of Paris in October 2017 estimated the carbon impact of a burial 3.6 times greater than cremation", notes Laëtitia Royant.

If this is only an average, the study specifies that the least ecological burial, with the construction of a concrete vault and the installation of a monument, often imported from Southeast Asia, equals five cremations**.

"However, it is often these choices that funeral societies push families to make," laments the expert.

The promise of human composting is radically opposed: to allow a real return to the earth, which is, as a bonus, profitable.

It is still necessary to distinguish between the different techniques.

Brigitte Lapouge-Déjean issues a few reservations about those used to date in the United States.

“We are all the same on very technological solutions, where everything is done to accelerate the process of decomposition, she points out.

Two months is extremely fast.

Is it really natural then?

And even ecological?

»

The two authors of

prefer to refer to another technique, theorized by the Belgian engineer Francis Busigny under the name of humusation.

No box this time.

The body is placed on a bed of vegetation 20 cm thick then buried by 2m² of this same mixture of soil.

“And we let the decomposition take place over a much longer period of twelve months”, resumes Brigitte Lapouge-Déjean.

Francis Busigny imagines that a small part of this humus helps to grow a tree in memory of the deceased.

The rest would be used to regenerate degraded soils in the surrounding area.

In the meantime, biodegradable coffin and in the ground?

Brigitte Lapouge-Déjean thinks more of this second solution for France, “up to going to garden cemeteries whose earth would be nourished by these decomposed bodies”.

Still need to change the law.

Impossible mission ?

The expert despairs of seeing things change one day and points to "the intense lobbying of funeral companies against human composting", whose "interest is not only to be an ecological funeral mode but also much cheaper" .

Pierre Larribe, legal manager of the Confederation of Funeral and Marble Professionals (CPFM), defends himself against any opposition from the profession.

“If it passes, we will adapt,” he explains.

Our work is in any case not limited to the treatment of the remains but also to the organization of the funeral, which will always remain necessary whatever the method of treatment of the bodies chosen... "In the meantime, Brigitte Lapouge-Déjean recalls that it It is already possible to opt for coffins in materials which will deteriorate very quickly, such as cardboard or white wood.

"And in the ground rather than in a concrete vault," she insists.

Some natural cemeteries, such as that of Souché, near Niort, already offer this type of burial… ultimately not so far from human composting.

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* Religious always have the right to be buried by tradition without a coffin, specify Laure Royant and Brigitte Lapouge-Déjean.

** Conversely, burial in the ground without a monument has a slightly lower ecological impact than cremation.

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