Legalizing Human Composting by 2027

Guests sit in the gathering space looking at a shrouded mannequin in front of the threshold vessel at Recompose, a green funeral home specializing in human composting, also known as natural organic reduction, terramation, or recomposition at Recompose Seattle on October 06, 2022 in Seattle, Washington. (Mat Hayward/Getty Images for Recompose)




California has already voted to legalize the composting of human remains in 2027, but some residents are not willing to wait that long.

The Los Angeles Times wrote about California resident Blaire Van Valkenburgh being one of a growing number of residents composting the remains of their loved ones, "But this kind of burial — natural organic reduction — won’t be legal in California until 2027, so Van Valkenburgh paid to fly her husband’s body to Washington, the first state to legalize human composting in 2020."

Until 2027, it appears that there will be a budding industry of collaboration to facilitate compost burials for those who live in California. "[I]n the first of what will probably be other such collaborations, the family-owned Clarity Funerals and Cremation in Anaheim has partnered with Return Home to offer a package deal for people in Southern California who want to compost their loved ones in Washington," the LA Times wrote.     READ MORE...

California Sets Record

First, the good news: The amount of planet-warming gases Californians released into the atmosphere in 2020 was 9% less than the previous year — a record decline mostly because of motorists driving less amid the COVID-19 lockdown.

Now, the bad news: The quantity of carbon dioxide spewed by record-setting wildfires that same year effectively erased almost two decades of emission reductions on the part of the world’s fifth — and soon to be fourth — largest economy.

Those two findings — both released in a little more than a week’s time this month — have painted a grim and confusing portrait of California’s efforts to curb global warming. They also come as a U.N. report finds that global greenhouse gas reduction efforts are “highly inadequate.”  READ MORE...