By Pepper Fisher
PORT ANGELES – Until recently, when a person dies there were two options; burial or cremation. But now there’s a third option, and Washington state is leading the way.
With the passage of Senate Bill 5001 Concerning Human Remains in 2019, Washington became the first state to legalize a new process that goes by many names; natural organic reduction, terramation or, more simply, human composting. And now, it’s available here in Clallam County.
Amanda Hough works for Harper Ridgeview Funeral Chapel and Sequim Valley Funeral Chapel. They are now offering terramation as an option through the company Return Home in Auburn. She says the process begins with a coffin-sized cylinder where loved ones can view the body.
“They have a vessel that they lay alfalfa, sawdust and wood chips. The loved one has been placed on top of that, and they are placed in a biodegradable gown, at which point the family is invited to surround their loved one with anything that’s biodegradable. After they do what’s called the laying in ceremony, which is their version of, basically, a memorial, they put another layer of that compostable materials. And once they seal that, the whole process takes about 60 days from beginning the process to receiving your loved one back.”
And when she says, “receiving your loved one back”, what exactly are we receiving?
“After the terramation process has completed, there’s usually about one cubic yard of composted material available to the family. They could have it delivered to their home if they’d like, they can have it shipped, depending on how much you’d like. I know that most of the people from the larger cities who don’t have the kind of space where they can take in an entire cubic yard, that they can have a smaller bag sent so that they can put that around their plants at home or on their balcony. And for families who maybe don’t feel that they need to have that composted material delivered back, they have natural wooded land that they will spread that compost. It’s just reclaimed and given back to nature.”
It could be argued that there are benefits to society with this option. There is only so much space in the world for more cemeteries, and cremation is not exactly the cleanest process for the environment.
“A lot of the information that really jumps out, especially being in this industry, what it shows is that one single cremation puts off enough CO2 and, basically, pollutants, it’s an equivalent to using the same amount of fuel for a mid-sized SUV. So, if you can imagine that every person that goes through a cremation process is still expelling those chemicals, right? What they’re doing with human composting is doing what nature is already doing, what it set up and designed to do, just at a completely natural process.”
In terms of cost comparison to the other options, Hough says a traditional burial starts at around $8,000, a basic cremation is in the neighborhood of $3,000, and terramation is around $5,000.
“It’s very comparable in price, and there’s the option of being able to give back to nature and, kind of, move forward with that process is beautiful for most people.”
To find out more about terramation, contact Amanda Hough at Harper Ridgeview Funeral Chapel by dialing (360) 452-9701.
(Photo: Return Home vessel)