Plan Ahead

We make planning ahead for human composting simple and straightforward with our prepaid funeral plan.

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Why Precompose

Our prepayment program, called Precompose, allows you to pay in advance and make arrangements for your future human composting with Recompose.
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Make Your Choice Clear

Establishing your human composting plan in advance eliminates questions about how to fulfill your green death care wishes at the time of your death. Your loved ones will have have a plan in place and will receive personalized support from our funeral directors throughout the death care journey.

Ease the Financial and Emotional Burden

Precompose is a prepaid funeral trust. This means the money you pay into Precompose is set aside for when you need services in the future, easing the financial burden on your loved ones at the time of your death, and protecting them from unexpected expenses or surprise charges. Death and grief can make decision making challenging. Planning ahead allows you to lighten the emotional load on others after you’re gone.

Save Money

Purchasing Precompose in full now ensures you pay today’s price—$7,000—for your end-of-life services, even if the price goes up. If you choose to pay through our monthly payment plan, we guarantee the cost of your Recompose services at the time of your purchase as long as you make payments consistently before your death. Joining now gives you the opportunity to offset costs for your death while you are alive.

Support Life
After Your Death

Take a tangible and personal action to fight climate change and give back to the earth in your final act.
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Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

Human composting uses 87% less energy than traditional burial or cremation. By choosing Recompose, you will save one metric ton of carbon from entering the environment. That’s equivalent to the CO2 emissions of driving 2,481 miles or 1,102 pounds of coal.

Dismantle Destructive Funeral Practices

Funeral practices like cremation and embalming have a profound impact on the environment. Each year, about 3 million people die in the U.S. Cremation burns fossil fuels and emits carbon dioxide and particulates into the atmosphere. Conventional burial consumes valuable urban land, pollutes the soil, and contributes to climate change through the resource-intensive manufacture and transport of caskets, headstones, and grave liners. Every year in the U.S., caskets alone use four million acres of forest. Human composting allows you to choose an option that renews rather than consumes.

Heal the Climate

Soil plays a vital role in keeping our ecosystems healthy. It naturally removes carbon dioxide from the air and helps regulate climate change. It also filters water and provides nutrients and habitat to plants and animals. When you choose human composting, your body becomes one cubic yard of this important resource, giving back to the earth and nourishing the land that supports life. Each payment toward your Precompose plan is a meaningful way to take sustained action for climate change now.

Join the Green Funeral Revolution

We’ve been working to develop, hone, and legalize human composting since 2010. Recompose became the first full-service funeral home in the world to offer human composting in 2020. By 2022, over 100 Recompose customers prevented the emissions equivalent of over 11,000 gallons of gasoline, 232 barrels of oil, or 110,000 pounds of coal. As a Precompose member, you join a movement of people dedicated to giving back to the earth with their final act.

How it Works

From signing up for Precompose to ensuring your final wishes are fulfilled, we aim to make death care clear and straightforward.
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Step 1: Sign up for free

Complete our online sign up process—no funeral home visit required.

Step 2: Choose your payment plan

Select the payment plan works best for you. We offer the following payment levels:

  • $100 per month — 70 payments over 5 years, 10 months
  • $250 per month28 payments over 2 years, 4 months
  • $500 per month14 payments over 1 year, 2 months
  • $7,000 — one-time payment*

*We accept checks if you choose to pay the full balance at one time.

Step 3: Review and complete your paperwork

Just like with any legal document, we recommend taking time to read and review your Precompose contract. You may do this all online or print the contract and mail it back to us. Our team is available to assist if you have questions.

Step 4: Enjoy peace of mind

Your end-of-life needs are taken care of. By planning ahead, you have taken a step to light the decision making and emotional load on others after you’ve died. At the time of your death, our Services team will carry out your wishes and be there to inform and guide your people.

Pricing

Precompose includes the transformation of your body into soil, the opportunity for your loved ones to keep or donate that soil, and full support throughout the death care journey.

PRECOMPOSE PRICE: $7,000

Multiple payment options allow you to select the plan that works best. Our monthly payment plans do not carry an additional fee and are billed automatically each month.

  • $100 per month — 70 payments over 5 years, 10 months
  • $250 per month28 payments over 2 years, 4 months
  • $500 per month14 payments over 1 year, 2 months
  • $7,000 — one-time payment

This price includes:

Included in your Precompose membership are the legal forms required to designate your funeral wishes. We provide templates for the following legal documents:

  • Disposition Authorization
  • Designated Agent for Funeral Arrangements
  • Vital Statistic Forms
  • Transport Form

These can be completed online and are kept on file by Recompose. If you prefer, you may choose to print out and mail in paper copies of your forms.

At the time of death, our Services team will help coordinate transportation and logistics, and fulfill your death care plan.

For the next eight to twelve weeks during your transformation into soil, Recompose will be there to inform and guide your people. Our Services Specialists have decades of experience providing personalized care and guidance.

Transportation of the body within King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties in Washington State is included in our price. Transportation to future Recompose locations within 30 miles of the future facility is included.

Transport outside of our service area can be arranged. Our Services team is available to discuss transport options and help with arranging transportation when the time comes.

  • Transport costs within Washington State
    Costs for Washington counties are based on proximity to Recompose. Current pricing for Washington State is listed by county in our General Price List.
  • Transport costs outside Washington State
    Transport costs vary by funeral home and region. For example, transport from Portland, OR to Seattle costs $850, whereas California to Seattle starts at about $3,000. Most clients that come to us from another state work with a funeral home in their area to arrange for transport. This funeral home will pick up a body at the place of death and arrange for transport to Recompose.

Please note: future transportation costs cannot be paid in advance at this time.

Private, onsite cooled storage for up to four weeks is included in your Precompose Plan.

The death certificate is a mandatory legal document that registers each death with the appropriate local authorities in Washington State. Our Services Specialists will handle the filing of the death certificate.

Our staff can also help if additional certified copies are needed. In most cases, we can assist in ordering and mailing copies from your local vital records office.

Fees for each death certificate vary by county. For example, as of January 2021, King County charges $25 each.

County Medical Examiners in both King and Clark County review all deaths in their respective counties. The fee for this review is included your Precompose Plan.

Before a death certificate is certified, the District Attorney program reviews each cause of death identified on the death certificate to verify that the cause and manner (what the person died from) do not indicate the need for the medical examiner’s office to investigate further.

You may choose to have an obituary published on our website and include multiple pictures in a photo gallery. Obituaries can also include links to donate to causes you believe in.

The transformation into soil will be tailored to your body and managed by the leading experts in human composting.

The process begins when our staff lay your body into a Recompose vessel surrounded by wood chips, alfalfa, and straw. The body and plant material remain in the vessel for five to seven weeks. After microbes break everything down on the molecular level, the soil amendment is removed from the vessel and allowed to cure for three to five weeks. The cutting-edge design of Recompose’s vessels, coupled with our highly-trained operators, ensures that the resulting soil is safe for use on plants and trees.

Our Services team will communicate with your people at pivotal moments throughout your  transformation into soil. We will keep them updated on when the soil has finished key stages of the process, and work with them to schedule pick up or shipment of soil once the process is complete.

Eight to twelve weeks after you are placed into a vessel, you will become a nutrient-rich soil ready to nourish the land and give back to the earth.

The amount of soil for each person varies. Typically about a cubic yard of soil is produced that weighs between 500 to 1,000 pounds.

You can choose how much soil you would like your people to keep or donate to conservation efforts. If you choose for your people to keep the soil, it will be packaged and ready for pickup or delivery. We recommend talking with them before making a decision about what you’d like to be done with your soil.

Note: while soil pickup from Recompose is included in the price of human composting, the shipping of soil is an additional cost.

YOUR PRICE IS GUARANTEED

When you sign up for Precompose, we guarantee the cost of your Recompose services at the time of your purchase, as long as you make payments consistently before your death, even if the price has since gone up.

100% REFUND AVAILABLE WITHIN 30 DAYS

If you change your mind, you may receive a 100% refund within the first 30 days of joining Precompose, no questions asked.

If you change your mind in the future, you can receive a 90% refund of the money you’ve paid into Precompose. If Recompose closes or isn’t available at the time of your death, you’ll receive 90% of your money back. The remaining 10% is kept by Recompose for our operating costs.

CEREMONIAL SPACES

Recompose offers two thoughtfully curated spaces for a service or for your people to have a private experience before or after your soil transformation. Our Services Specialists are licensed funeral directors who help with event planning, ensure the event runs smoothly, and can lead your ceremony if desired.

Ceremonial Offerings are optional services and are not included in the price of Precompose or eligible for advance purchase. Please see our Custom Ceremonies & Offerings Catalog or Price List for more information.

This beautiful, modern room is a welcoming space for friends and family to gather for ceremonies and small services. Floor-to-ceiling windows in shades of green and yellow and a large tapestry of the forest invite nature into this urban sanctuary. The room has a lectern for speakers and a screen for slideshows. At the center of the room is a white, hexagonal threshold vessel—a passageway to the Greenhouse, where human composting occurs.

We offer a variety of custom ceremonies and services, both in-person at Recompose and virtual for out-of-state clients. See our Ceremonies & Offerings Catalog for more information.

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The Gathering Space

Cedar is a serene space uniquely designed for clients who wish to have a private experience with their person before transformation into soil begins or to connect with their person’s soil after the process is complete. The space can be used for personal time, private viewings, and hands-on care, like bathing or shrouding.

See our Ceremonies & Offerings Catalog for more information.

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cedar room funeral ceremony space

A shrouded mannequin demonstrates how Cedar can be used

Purchase

Every Precompose member powers our commitment to bring human composting to the world, tackle the climate crisis, and create a radical new relationship with death. Together, we are transforming the funeral industry.

FAQ

If you want to dig deeper before you purchase Precompose, see below for more information on the service, our trust, and our policies.

PLANNING

If you expect a death soon, please call us at (206) 800-8733. Precompose is designed primarily for planning in advance when a death is not expected for many years.

Yes, you can donate your organs and choose human composting.

Organ donation is only possible if someone dies in a hospital because they need specific equipment to keep the organs viable until the donation company arrives. Medical professionals remove organs within a few days after someone dies.

Our Services team will coordinate transportation to Recompose with the hospital. If you live outside of Washington State, the local funeral home you’re working with will coordinate with the hospital.

Alternatively, full body donation to medical schools and research projects usually embalm bodies to extend the time during which they can be studied. Bodies that are embalmed cannot undergo human composting. Some programs freeze the donor for non-embalmed use. So we encourage you to contact the donation program to understand their process and whether it is possible to to donate you full body without embalming.

Yes, you can join Precompose for your future human composting from anywhere in the U.S.

Transport to Recompose will need to be arranged and paid for, most likely with a local funeral home, if you do not live within 30 miles of a future Recompose location. We are available to help you coordinate transportation and answer any questions. If you live outside of the U.S., please contact us at precompose@recompose.life and we will be in touch to help you plan.

Read more about planning ahead for transport here.

While the price for Recompose services will not increase for you as long as you pay consistently towards your balance, the price for transport outside our service area will increase over time to accommodate increases in gas and labor costs. For this reason, while we allow a prepayment for transportation, we do not lock in the price for transportation.

If you live outside our service area, we recommend setting aside the current transport price plus an additional buffer for potential future increases. Please contact our team if you would like to prepay your transportation costs. Recompose will bill your estate for the then-current transport price after your body has been transported to Recompose. You can see the current transport pricing in our General Price List.

Yes, you can cancel your plan at any time. If you cancel within 30 days of joining, you will receive a 100% refund. After 30 days, you will receive a 90% refund of the money you’ve paid into Precompose. The remaining 10% is kept by Recompose for our operating costs. Please contact Precompose at precompose@recompose.life or (206) 800-8733.

Once the transformation is complete, similar to ashes from a cremation, the soil can be used however your loved ones choose—to enrich a garden, plant a tree, or spread across multiple locations. The process creates one cubic yard of soil and weighs approximately 500 pounds to over 1,000 pounds. If your people prefer not to keep all, or any, of the soil, we will donate it to one of our conservation partners.

Learn more about how to consider your soil options here.

While you can provide payment for someone, they need to sign their own documents or you need to have a very specific Power of Attorney document saying that you can sign the documents for them.

Yes. We offer both virtual tours and in-person guided, small group tours led by Recompose staff. Learn more and sign up for a tour.

See photos and learn more about our Seattle location.

PRICING & SIGN UP

No, funeral services are not included in the price of Precompose. We offer a variety of in-person and virtual ceremonies and services for an additional cost. Please see our General Price List or Custom Ceremonies and Offerings Catalog for more information and pricing.

When you sign up for Precompose, we guarantee the cost of your Recompose services at the time of your purchase as long as you make payments consistently before your death, even if the price has since gone up.

The Recompose price includes transport from within King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties. We also offer transport to our location from counties within Washington State for the fees listed on our current General Price List (GPL). Please note that the prices for transport from outside this range will increase over time to accommodate for increasing labor and gas prices.

Yes. If you prefer to pay by check, full payment is required. Please mail your check to: Recompose, 4 S. Idaho Street, Seattle, WA 98134. Please contact Precompose at precompose@recompose.life or (206) 800-8733 if you have questions about how to pay by check.

Yes, our staff can help you sign up via phone or by mail. You can call (206) 800-8733 or email us at precompose@recompose.life to schedule time to sign up via phone or request a mailed Precompose packet.

If you decide to sign up online, you can do so here.

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Join our growing community working to bring human composting to the world.

About Recompose

Recompose is a licensed, full-service, green funeral home in Seattle offering human composting. As the first human composting company in the world, we are a trusted leader in ecological death care. We are Seattle’s only human composting provider and serve clients across the U.S.

Recompose Seattle
4 S. Idaho St, Seattle, WA 98134
Open by appointment

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Voted Best Funeral Home in Seattle Times’ Best in the PNW Contest 2023

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Land Acknowledgement
Recompose acknowledges we make our lives and livelihoods on the lands of the Coast Salish People, specifically the Duwamish People. We honor with gratitude the Duwamish People past and present, the land itself, and the Duwamish Tribe. Colonization is an active, persistent process. Indigenous communities continue to be resilient in protecting their ecological and cultural lifeways and deathways despite ongoing oppression. Recompose respects, shares, and supports this commitment to climate healing and environmental justice. Join Recompose in contributing to Real Rent Duwamish.