Watch to find out more about the new law in Washington.
Video credit: TomoNews US
If you’re worried about the cost of burial plots but are not comfortable keeping the ashes of a loved one lying around, Washington state now gives you another option: turn them into compost.
The bill called SB 5001 “concerning human remains” was signed into law by Jay Inslee, Democratic Governor of Washington, on Tuesday. It’s the first law of its kind in the US and will be effective starting May 1, 2020.
Both Houses passed the bill and it received bipartisan support following a study that determined that the process called “liquid cremation” produced soil that “smelled like soil and nothing else,” according to Fox News.
The state’s Senate described the process in the final bill report: “Alkaline hydrolysis and natural organic reduction are added as allowable reduction methods for handling deceased persons’ bodies for their disposition.point 329 |
Alkaline hydrolysis is the reduction of human remains to bone fragments and essential elements in a licensed hydrolysis facility using heat, pressure, water, and base chemical agents.point 157 | Natural organic reduction is the contained, accelerated conversion of human remains to soil.point 237 |
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Fox explained that the bodies are then “mixed with substances like wood chips into about two wheelbarrows’ worth of soil in a span of several weeks.” And departed loved ones will now be with their families in more ways than just in spirit.
The Senate report went on: “Subject to the terms of the document of gift and the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act, a person that accepts an anatomical gift of an entire body may allow embalming, burial, alkaline hydrolysis, natural organic reduction, and use of remains in a funeral service.”
People’s Memorial Association Executive Dir. Nora Menkin said: “It gives meaning and use to what happens to our bodies after death.”
The bill proposed that “a license or endorsement is required in order to operate a crematory or conduct a cremation, operate or conduct alkaline hydrolysis, operate or conduct natural organic reduction, or operate a natural organic reduction facility.” The estimated cost of such a procedure is around $5,500.
According to The Seattle Times, it now “paves the way for Recompose, a project to build the first urban ‘organic reduction’ funeral home in the country.point 347 |
Washington already has several ‘green cemeteries,’ such as White Eagle Memorial Preserve in Klickitat County, where people can be buried without embalming, caskets or headstones.point 166 | The Recompose model is more like an urban crematorium (bodies go in, remains come out), but using the slower, less carbon-intensive means of ‘organic reduction,’ or composting.point 328 |
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The House passed the amended version of the bill 80-16 while the Senate voted 38-11.
An excerpt of the final bill report reads:
Alkaline hydrolysis and natural organic reduction are added as allowable reduction methods for handling deceased persons’ bodies for their disposition. Alkaline hydrolysis is the reduction of human remains to bone fragments and essential elements in a licensed hydrolysis facility using heat, pressure, water, and base chemical agents. Natural organic reduction is the contained, accelerated conversion of human remains to soil.
ADVERTISEMENT A license or endorsement is required in order to operate a crematory or conduct a cremation, operate or conduct alkaline hydrolysis, operate or conduct natural organic reduction, or operate a natural organic reduction facility.
Subject to the terms of the document of gift and the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act, a person that accepts an anatomical gift of an entire body may allow embalming, burial, alkaline hydrolysis, natural organic reduction, and use of remains in a funeral service.
ADVERTISEMENT The Inspector’s inspection authority is modified to entering the premises or place of business, where funeral directing, embalming, alkaline hydrolysis, or natural organic reduction is carried on for the purpose of inspection.
ADVERTISEMENT Various statutes governing the final disposition of human remains, handling, and scattering of the remains, and the operation of facilities that offer these services are amended to include alkaline hydrolysis and natural organic reduction.point 206 |
ADVERTISEMENT Generally, the amendments include adding alkaline hydrolysis, natural organic reduction, final disposition, and related terms in a similar manner to cremation terms.point 144 | The term human remains is modified.point 174 | Technical changes are made.point 198 | 1
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