How Human Composting Works

Recompose’s mission, values, and approach fit perfectly with the appreciation of nature, desire to minimize impact, and environmental ethics Donna espoused throughout her life.

It was the best experience working with your entire team. She is now resting under a beautiful oak tree on a farm in Dallas. When I pass I will go through the same process in Seattle and then my friends will put my soil on top of hers. So we are together again, forever.

Working with Recompose changed everything. The living compost was an instant symbol of rebirth into this world. The entire process honored who Taylor was and what he loved most here on earth. Replenishing the earth with new growth brought lightness and beauty during a time many traditional ways would have not.

What’s so great about the compost is that you can do everything with compost that you can do with ashes plus a whole lot more. You can just hold it in your hands. It smells good, it feels good…it feels like life.

I planted two trees in my backyard, repotted house plants, redesigned our front gardens, gave to friends, family, and my husband’s colleagues.​ I have some in a vase in the front window of our dressing room. This room was special for us and it gives me the opportunity to physically touch him as often as I need to and feel him still close to me.

I’ve consumed so much from Earth’s ecosystem that it feels right for my body to give back its elements as fully as possible. Composting makes so much available, relatively quickly and with minimal input of other resources. It’s totally the most awesome final thank you.

When my son’s soil arrived, we were all drawn to it. The earthy smell, the beautiful color, and the sense of vibrancy and life. He was tragically gone, but on some level he now also exists forever in nature.

We had no idea the profound significance receiving the soil of our son for our personal use would have. We used it to plant a dogwood tree in our yard that can be seen from his childhood bedroom. Our yard has become a spiritual place where we go to talk to our son while he, in turn, nourishes his dogwood tree. Thank you for this beautiful gift.

My body is a gift—which will carry me through this life. When it is all used up, it can become a gift that keeps giving. I find peace knowing I’ll become part of something living again. I’m proud to be a Precompose member and leave a legacy of renewal.

I went on a tour of the facility and was SO impressed. It was everything I hoped it would be and more – so sensitive, so ecological, so moral, so personal. It’s very pleasing to think that human remains, my remains, will be turned into nutrient rich soil that can be used to grow new plant life. I like that.

Imagine nourishing a flower, a tree, or a forest ecosystem as the last material thing that you do here. Thank you Recompose for supporting dad in his final earthly gesture.

Thank you to Recompose for allowing my husband’s body to go back to the earth and contribute to restoring that ecosystem.

It’s comforting to know every cell of Amy’s body lives on in the garden. Amy loved the flowers she saw in gardens wherever she was. The spring blossoms will always remind me of Amy.

Recompose was the perfect choice for my brother. The staff were compassionate, turning an industrial process into a meaningful ritual our family cherished. His soil is now nurturing trees in gardens all across the Northwest. I talk with him every time I am weeding underneath my own trees. I love thinking of him spread under the roots of so many trees across the country.

Al always loved nature and the outdoors. He wanted to become a part of restoring and bringing back to life nature that had made him very happy and fulfilled during his life.

I look forward to having my husband’s soil and knowing that he will live on in the soil life, the plant life, the trees, the habitats that he will provide as things grow thanks to him. I believe in what you are doing, it is the best way to live sustainably and in a regenerative way.

The Gathering Space at Recompose appears modern and not what we’re used to thinking of death. While there are tissues for the grieving, this is different. At Recompose, instead of saying goodbye, you’re welcoming an opportunity for your loved one to recreate itself in a different form.

My father planted trees at our property and asked to have the soil put around them when he passed. It was his favorite place. He’ll grow there with the trees, and we’ll always know he’s there.

Recompose was just right for our family. My husband was an organic farmer and farm advisor. Having his body composted was his last gesture of love for the earth – giving all that remained of himself to encourage new life.

We celebrate our grandson’s life by visiting places where memories were created. Originally, we spread a handful of his soil in places that triggered memories of special times together. This year those dots of memories brought smiles to our faces. We celebrated the gift of him in our life and feel lucky to have ties to events that bind him to our hearts.

Washington is so fortunate to have human composting as an alternative option to conventional cemetery burial and cremation. Katrina and her team offer super informative tours of this facility in Seattle. I just attended one and highly recommend it for any and all!

The idea that I may be able to reduce my carbon footprint in death, in a way that is still impactful to those I may leave behind, and to fulfill life in ways that I’ve always cherished (forestry and gardening) is the simplest and most elemental way I feel I can prepare for death.

As a Roman Catholic priest, I recognize only human composting fulfills the Catholic prayer of Commital: “Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” Having borrowed my body from the earth for 75 years, it’s only right that my body not only returns to the earth, but enhances it. “And God saw it was very good.” (Genesis 1:31)

I hate the idea of precious ground being used for graveyards. The waste of natural resources in so many ways. I recently learned of the environmental costs of cremation, although that was going to be my go-to because green burial grounds are difficult to find. This is a wonderful alternative.

For many years I’ve been concerned with the toxicity of human bodies continuing to pollute the Earth even after death. I feel it is absolutely necessary to reinvent the funeral industry, with a process that has the least impact on natural resources and renders us non-toxic to the planet after our passing.

A metric ton of carbon is saved by choosing composting over cremation. As if that fact alone wasn’t convincing enough—just imagine—you can become an entire cubic yard of soil for your loved ones to garden with! Recompose offers a way to give back to the earth in a genuinely meaningful way.

To return to the earth through natural cycles and regeneration of new life is beautiful. Here’s to giving our lives to the causes that warm our hearts and bring smiles to our faces, and leave the world better than we found it.