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The Recompose Land Program

Clients have the opportunity to give soil back to the ecosystem that surrounds us

Guiding Vision

A mission to connect humanity to the natural world guides Recompose’s work to offer a death care service rooted in nature.

Recompose partners with nonprofit organizations to protect and regenerate ecosystems through conservation, rewilding, and other restoration practices. These Land Partners receive soil donated from Recompose clients to use in projects that benefit the land they steward.

I love the soil donation option and the fact that Recompose partners with environmental nonprofit organizations. I plan to donate a portion of my soil to the land conservation program after I am composted and ask my family to take the rest home to their gardens.

Nancy M | Precompose Member

Portland, Oregon

The land program is one of my favorite things about Recompose. I love the thought of helping restore land that needs it most when I pass. Makes me smile to think that my soil will help support the earth and all the creatures that depend on it.

Heather A | Precompose Member

Seattle, Washington

Donating soil back to the greater ecosystem is such a lovely opportunity. I’ve never wanted to be buried in a cemetery and this is about as far from that idea as possible.

Peter M | Precompose Member

Portland, Oregon

Land Partners

We partner with conservation organizations who steward land and need soil to restore and revitalize protected areas.

Recompose cultivates partnerships with nonprofit organizations with excellent reputations, prioritizing those that demonstrate strong internal systems, effective communication, and a stable team. Our Land Partners may be active or inactive, depending on their need for donated soil.

Donated soil supports restoration and conservation initiatives to help habitats thrive and make the land more resilient. Unlike a public cemetery designed for memorialization, soil donated to the Land Program is integrated across multiple locations where stewards deem it is needed most. The preserves where soil is donated are not accessible to the public. We do not recommend our Land Program for clients seeking a specific plot to visit or commemorate their person.

A Selection of Our Past and Present Land Partners

  • Olympia Ecosystems
  • Bells Mountain

Please note: our Land Partners’ focus is land management and restoration. Please contact Recompose with any questions about soil donation.

Restoration and Rewilding

The Land Program supports conservation initiatives throughout the Pacific Northwest.

Our Land Partners focus on ecologically significant areas across diverse, protected landscapes like forests, prairie grasslands, and wetland areas. Some of the many species that are supported through soil donation include:

  • Elk
  • Beaver
  • River otter
  • Black-tailed deer
  • Juvenile salmonids

Recompose is proud to support this work to allow nature to flourish again. 

Clients who choose to donate soil through the Land Program have shared that they connect with the concept of returning to the natural environment as a whole rather than to a single location—instead of becoming a tree, they become part of the forest.

Customizable Options

Clients can choose to donate or keep any amount of soil.

Many Recompose clients choose to donate some soil to the Land Program and take a portion to share with friends and family to use on gardens, on house plants, and scatter across favorite places.

Learn more about customizable soil options.

a large and small container holding human composting soil

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.

David S

Seattle, Washington

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.

Paul S

New York, New York

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.

Heather S

Anchorage, Alaska