Human composting bill returns, headed to Senate committee

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah may soon be the 13th state to legalize "natural organic reduction," or human composting, as an alternative, lower-cost and eco-friendly way to bury the dead.

Sen. Jen Plumb, D-Salt Lake City, is sponsoring the bill under Utah's funeral amendments, and the proposed changes would allow funeral services to offer human decomposition.

The bill first made an appearance in the 2024 session and will be under discussion Monday in the Senate Business and Labor Committee meeting.

Based out of Auburn, Washington, Earth Funeral prices human composting at $3,950 — significantly cheaper than the average burial service cost.

Plumb told the Deseret News this bill does not apply to one specific demographic. This bill is about "what people want their last rest to look like," she said.

Plumb mentioned how people opt for natural organic reduction for a variety of reasons, some listing environmental reasons and others saying it feels like a gentler way to be laid to rest.

"As someone who has worked in medicine for 2½ decades now, I've seen a lot of people come and go, and there's something sacred about the end of life," Plumb said. "And if people have an idea about how they want to go, and it involves this process, I think we ought to look into having it be available for them."

When the bill was introduced during the last session, it was met with opposition and didn't make it past the committee. "Talking about death is uncomfortable," Plumb said.

Human composting rules and requirements

During the 2024 session, a point of contention arose from individuals opposing the potential cultivation of food in dirt containing human remains.

So, Plumb's bill was adapted for this session to prohibit "the knowing use of remains in growing food for human consumption."

The bill also includes several sanctity of life requirements, prohibiting funeral services from decomposing multiple bodies in one container and requiring thorough comprehensive records for each person who chooses human composting as a burial method.

Further, whoever authorized human decomposition for the deceased is required to give detailed instructions for how the final remains should be handled and where they should go — and they should not go in a vegetable garden.

How do services perform natural organic reduction?

Earth Funeral explains the more than 45-day process that transforms a body "into nutrient-rich soil."

Without intervention, human bones take anywhere from 10 to thousands of years to decompose, depending on the environment. To make human bones decompose in the advertised 45-day period, they need something that will significantly speed it up.

Another human composting company, Return Home, explained how they speed up the bone breakdown process.

"We remove anything inorganic from the compost, and we also remove bone and fat type," the TikTok voiceover explained. The bones are then placed into a cremulator, which use rotating blades to grind them down into small pieces. These pieces are then placed back in the compost material.

Plumb says the bill is representative of Utahns across the state

Funeral directors in different areas of the state would like to offer this to their communities, Plumb said.

She explained how people first expressed their interest in human composting to her in 2022, and since then it has been legalized in other states, and interest in Utah has grown as well.

The bill will be in the Senate Business and Labor Committee on Monday at 2 p.m.

"I always encourage people to be a part of the process, whether that is speaking up or just listening in, if they want to send an email to their representatives or legislators for or against something," Plumb said.

"The more engagement we have in something, the better representation we have in our system."

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