This Funeral Home Is Going Viral Because They Compost Human Bodies Into Nutrient-Rich Soil, And Wow, It's Remarkable
On today's episode of Science Is Amazing, there's apparently a funeral home in Washington state that's turning human bodies into fertile soil.
They're called Return Home, and you may have already seen them on TikTok, where they've shared many of their now-viral videos. The human-to-soil transformation process is called "terramation," which they explain in this clip:
@returnhomenor Welcome to Return Home; join us on our journey! #humancomposting #terramation #naturalburial #funeraldirector #funeraldirectorlife #sustainableliving #askamortician
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"Welcome to Return Home. We are an end-of-life alternative to burial and cremation called 'terramation.'"
"Our process gently transforms human remains into rich, fertile soil to return to the earth. We are a first-of-its-kind, open-to-the-public terramation facility," the video continues.
"So far, we have served 16 families and counting," she said. This number is now 60 at the time of this reporting. Families can "make an environmentally mindful end-of-life decision for their loved one," she continued.
"Our mission is to make our service available to anyone interested and to question the existing funeral practices by slowing down the process, by letting nature take its course."
It turns out that Return Home is a relatively new funeral home — it only started its operations in 2021. That's because terramation — officially called natural organic reduction — just became legal in Washington state in 2019.
"Washington state became the first place in the world to legalize terramation," Return Home's client services manager, Katey Houston — also the voice of the funeral home's TikToks — told BuzzFeed. "Now, Oregon and Colorado and Vermont have legalized the process."
Before the official terramation process begins, families can choose to have what they call a "laying in ceremony," Katey said. "So think of that as, like, if you went to a normal funeral home and it would be an open casket, except people are in their vessels here."
The prep work for this process is explained in this TikTok, where Katey demonstrates what happens when someone arrives to the funeral home, only with an artificial skeleton named Mr. Skelly:
@returnhomenor today we discuss "flow of body" at our human composting facility #humancomposting #naturalburial #greenburial #mortician #funeraldirectorlife #funeraldirector #sustainableliving #greenfuneralhome #greenfuneral #deathcare #composting #naturalburial #composting
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Once someone gets to the funeral home, Katey says, “We gently slide them over onto our body boards, where we're then able to make them a little ID tag that stays on until the terramation takes place."
"We then put the label on the person's leg and continue by placing a head block under their head so if the family wants to view them, then they look good."
"Then, we give everyone a bath, because we think that they should go into their vessel clean."
"And then we dress them in a compostable garment that's custom made for them. After his bath, Mr. Skelly is ready to go into his vessel, where family members can then take time to put things like cards or even little jelly beans in with him," which would be the laying in process.
"Once they've had their time, we replace the remaining organics (straw, alfalfa, and sawdust) in the vessel, and it stays closed until the person is transformed into soil."
Once the vessel is closed, it sits in the front of the funeral home for 30 days, where family members of the deceased are allowed to visit as much as they want to. "Usually, the hardest part of the grieving process is physically never being near your person again," Katey said. "But this way, you are slowing down that physical separation from the person."
At the end of the 30 days, the body will have completely transformed into soil. "It's just the microbes in your gut that do that, we don't add heat," Katey explained. "All that's left is inorganics and some bone — so for example, hip replacement, stent screws from a broken arm, or that kind of thing."
While the inorganics would be taken out and recycled, the remaining bones would be put in a machine called a cremulator before being put back in the vessel to decompose another 30 days. This TikTok explains how that happens:
@returnhomenor Reply to @handyandibuhle we break them down and reintroduce for the microbes to consume! #humancomposting #naturalburial #greenburial #mortician #funeraldirectorlife #funeraldirector #sustainableliving #greenfuneralhome #greenfuneral #deathcare #composting #naturalburial #terramation
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