Frequently Asked Questions

Human composting - also known as Terramation, Recompose and Natural Organic Reduction - is a process that uses natural decomposition to turn human remains into nutrient-rich soil. It involves placing the body in a reusable vessel with organic materials like wood chips, straw, and alfalfa, then allowing microbes, oxygen, and controlled moisture to break it down over 30–60 days.
Human Composting is gaining traction as a more environmentally friendly alternative to traditional burial or cremation and is legal in 13 US states and Germany.
In a nutshell, from death comes life.
For a much more complicated, fascinating, but not for the squeamish version, please see my blog post from November 2024.  If you think about body disposition in any depth, its not for the squeamish. 
Having toured two facilities conducting human composting and I can honestly say it can be a beautiful, dignified and respectful process.
The UK LAw Council is currently consulting on a framework for new funerary options, including human composting.

As of July 2025, human composting is either not yet legal or formally regulated in any Australian jurisdiction. Some states are exploring the potential, but the process requires changes to funeral, burial, and environmental laws.
Matters concerning funerals, burial, cremation, and body disposition are regulated at the state and territory level. The legislation focuses on traditional burial and cremation as the primary methods of disposition.
While Australia predominantly requires human remains to be buried in designated burial grounds, or cremated, there is growing support for more sustainable end-of-life options like human composting, however legislative changes are needed to allow this practice.  Once the legislation enables human composting, then the regulatory environment will need to be built.
Currently the ACT and Tasmania have enabling legislation for human composting as they have the most recently updated and broad definitions for cremation which includes the words ‘and other innovative technologies’.  
NSW currently has a petition open seeking support to 'Recognise and regulate Human Composting as a death care option'. If you live in NSW please sign it!
However nowhere has the regulatory framework - yet….. Stay tuned 🙂

The composting process typically takes 30–60 days to reduce the body to soil, followed by a curing period of 2–4 weeks to stabilize the material - remember, every body is different and this will affect the process.

• The body is placed in a vessel with organic matter. 

• Air is circulated to stimulate microbial activity.

• Over a month or two, the remains break down and are absorbed into the organic material and turn into a soil amendment/compost.

• The contents come out of the first vessel, bones and teeth are screened out and further broken up, then returned to a vessel with the rest of the organic material, and cured before use.

Remember how your grandfather used to buy blood and bone to put on the garden?  Its not only perfectly natural, but we have been doing it in a different form for a long time, to aid our garden's health!
If you are not aware, during cremation your body disappears in the burning, leaving only your bones and some teeth, and these are sieved out, ground up and that is what is returned to families as ‘ashes’.

Yes. The process kills pathogens through natural thermophilic (heat-generating) decomposition, producing soil that meets environmental safety standards (where legal). It can be used to enrich gardens, trees, or conservation areas, depending on local regulations.

Yes. Human composting uses less energy and fewer resources than cremation or burial. It avoids:

• Emitting toxins, CO₂ or mercury (as cremation does),

• Using hardwood coffins and/or embalming chemicals, and

• Taking up finite land, which then requires perpetual maintenance

• Using fossil fuels (cremation is gas fires)
   

• Even natural burial which takes away the hardwoods, plastics, zippers and a lot of maintenance etc still has potential issues with groundwater contamination and slow leachate.  It is also very expensive (because land is finite).  
  Burial in any form is so expensive 80 percent of Australians are using cremation as it is the cheapest option.  It is my hope that human composting can be done at a competitive or lower price to cremation.

Each body yields around 0.75 to 1 cubic metre of soil — enough to fill the bed of a ute or plant several trees.

Where legal, yes — potentially. 
While not yet available in Australia, U.S. providers typically charge US$4,000–US$7,000, similar to or slightly more than cremation, but less than many burials. Prices would vary based on local setup and regulation.

No. Natural burial involves burying an unembalmed body in a biodegradable coffin or shroud or clothing without zippers and plastics in a bushland or low-impact setting. Human composting is an above-ground, single vessel per person controlled process resulting in reusable soil.  It does not tie up the land in perpetuity as any burial space does.