Who We Are
Recompose is a public benefit corporation powered by people who believe in changing the current death care paradigm. We approach this work with energy, tenacity, and joy.
Our Team
The Recompose team brings a wide range of experience and backgrounds to the shared work of transforming death care. Together, we’re building a more inclusive, ethical, and nature-based approach to death care.
Recompose Values
Our company values define how we operate, communicate, and interact with each other and our clients. They create a shared sense of purpose for achieving our goals.
History
From its germination, Recompose has been a progressive company. Our ongoing success is thanks to the many collaborators and supporters who have spent years sharing in this mission.
A Seed is Planted
Founder Katrina Spade first started thinking about the idea that became Recompose while playing in the backyard with her young son. “It was during that time where it seemed he was growing up so fast,” she recalls. “Someday he’ll be 40, I thought. Oh wow…I’ll be over 70 then! That realization inspired me to start thinking about my mortality.”
Designing Death
In the Master of Architecture program at University of Massachusetts Amherst, Katrina started thinking about the environmental impact of conventional burial and cremation. “When I die, I guess I’ll be cremated,” she remembers thinking. “I like green burial but I want to live in a city. Would I have to go back to the country to be buried? How could you bring nature to urban death care?”
The Power of Microbes
While at UMass, Katrina’s childhood friend Kate Stephenson called her. “Did you know farmers have been composting animals for decades?” The conversation sparked a question for Katrina: What if you could do that for humans? During her second year of grad school, Katrina built a compost heating system with friends Garth and Jesse, demonstrating the incredible power of microbes in what could be considered a prototype of a prototype.
A Space for the Urban Dead
Creating a more sustainable approach to the end of life continued to be a focus throughout Katrina’s graduate studies. She completed her thesis, “Of Dirt and Decomposition: Proposing a Place for the Urban Dead,” in early 2013. The design was for a collective core composting system with ramps spiraling around.
Echoing Green Fellowship
After graduating from architecture school, Katrina took jobs in sustainable design and building, and worked on the human composting concept nights and weekends. In the summer of 2014, she was awarded the Echoing Green Fellowship, a full-time two-year fellowship given to “transformational leaders who challenge the status quo.” Katrina was one of 30 fellows selected from over 3,000 applicants.
Urban Death Project
The fellowship allowed Katrina to focus on ecological death care full time. In 2014, she founded the nonprofit Urban Death Project (UDP). Experts in soil science, engineering, and project management helped develop the initial human composting system. Architect Alan Maskin became an early adviser, and his architecture firm Olson Kundig hosted a design charette at its Seattle office.
The First Study
In 2015, Katrina worked with Western Carolina University Professor Cheryl Johnston to test the NOR concept with the Department of Forensic Anthropology. Through WCU’s FOREST (Forensic Osteology Research Station), Dr. Johnston and Katrina completed the process on a human body for the first time. This milestone was covered by the New York Times and in Recompose advisor Caitlin Doughty’s second book, “From Here to Eternity.”
Kickstarter Campaign
The Urban Death Project: Laying Our Loved Ones to Rest” Kickstarter campaign was launched on March 30, 2015. By May 14, the project was successfully funded by 1,218 backers who contributed a total of $91,378. The funds were used to further the research and plan for a future human composting prototype.
TED Talk
Katrina presented “When I Die, Recompose Me” at TEDx Orcas Island in March 2016. The talk focused on the question, “What if our bodies could help grow new life after we die?” It now has over 1 million views.
From Core to Vessels
In her 2016 TED Talk, Katrina describes placing bodies in a collective core where human composting takes place. In 2017, after five years of research and testing, Katrina and her advisory team decided to shift to placing each body in an individual vessel. This change allowed for an easier path to legalization.
Recompose Founded
Together with her Board of Directors, Katrina decided to close the nonprofit Urban Death Project. She founded Recompose as a public benefit corporation in 2017. “Closing the UDP and opening Recompose was an important turning point,” Katrina says. “It helped us raise the funding needed to build infrastructure, hire experts, and continue bringing natural organic reduction to the public.” Two long-time advisors, Leslie Christian and Dr. Lynne Carpenter-Boggs, received the “Mulch Obliged” award for their contributions to the work.
Seed Round Raised
After famed Handmaid’s Tale author Margaret Atwood shared the Urban Death Project Kickstarter on Twitter, Katrina approached her with the seed round investment offering. “Thanks for all the materials on Recompose. It does look interesting, especially for large cities that are getting cramped for space,” the writer replied. Atwood joined as an investor, and Recompose raised a total of $693,000.
The Pilot Study
Dr. Lynne Carpenter-Boggs of Washington State University joined forces with Katrina to complete a study on natural organic reduction, then known as recomposition, with six donor bodies. The study successfully proved the process eliminates pathogens and heavy metals to well under EPA-recommended levels.
Ashoka Fellowship
In June 2018, Katrina was awarded the Ashoka Fellowship to continue her work creating “a dramatically new approach that reconnects death to natural cycles of life and reengages people through meaningful participation.” The Ashoka Foundation selects leading social entrepreneurs as Fellows for their innovative solutions to social problems and their potential to change patterns across society.
Pursuing Legalization
Professor Tanya Marsh and funeral director Nora Menkin helped in the early planning for policy change. Katrina then connected with Sen. Jamie Pedersen, her local Capitol Hill representative, at a constituent coffee event in their shared neighborhood. Sen. Pedersen was the lead sponsor of “Senate Bill 5001: Concerning human remains” during the 2019 legislative session, which successfully passed both the House and Senate.
Signed Into Law
In May 2019, Washington Governor Jay Inslee signed SB5001 into law, making Washington State the first in the world to legalize natural organic reduction (NOR), defined as “the contained accelerated conversion of human remains to soil.”
Bells Mountain
Through the conservation organization Forterra, Recompose connected with Bells Mountain, a 700 acre land trust in southern Washington. Soil created by the Recompose process can be donated to this verdant forest, powering the restoration of the environment and new life after death. “Here, all biomass is recognized as sacred,” says Elliot Rasenick, steward of the Bells Mountain forest. “The Recompose model for death care becomes a symbol for a new ethic of respect for life.”
Prototype Testing
“Along the way, we’ve modified and refined our technology, but our core vision has remained the same,” says Erik Bondo, our mechanical operations lead consultant. The Recompose vessel system has undergone rigorous development and testing starting in 2013 and continuing today.
Recompose | Seattle
Architecture firm Olson Kundig led the design of Recompose’s planned SoDo location, Recompose | Seattle. “Though our plans for this location had to be shelved due to COVID19, Recompose’s commitment to creating opportunities for ceremony and ritual informed by nature continues,” Katrina says.
$6.75 Million Raised
Recompose raised $6.75 million to continue our mission of ecological death care and continue building towards accepting our first bodies. Each investor joined to support our mission of ecological and social change.
Precompose Launches
Precompose, Recompose’s prepayment option, opened in August 2020. Precompose allows individuals from anywhere in the world to make arrangements in advance for choosing Recompose’s death care services. Sign up for Precompose here.
Recompose Opens
After over seven years of design, development, fundraising, and collaboration, Recompose started accepting bodies for human composting at our location south of Seattle in December 2020.
Oregon Legalizes Human Composting
On June 15, 2021, Oregon Governor Kate Brown signed HB 2574 into law, adding natural organic reduction to Oregon’s list of death care options. “It’s not easy to think about death, but it can be really comforting to have the opportunity to make decisions we feel good about. HB 2574 ensures we have another safe, proven choice for those who want it,” said Representative Pam Marsh, HB 2574’s lead sponsor.
Vermont Legalizes Human Composting
In June 2022, Vermont has become the fourth state in the country to allow natural organic reduction, an alternative to cremation and burial. H.244 authorizes the use of natural organic reduction for the disposition of human remains. The bill was co-sponsored by Representative Carolyn Partridge.
California Legalizes Human Composting
California became the fifth state to legalize human composting on September 18, 2022. Governor Newsom signed AB351 bill into law, following two previous failed attempts to pass human composting in 2020 and 2021.Jobs
We are looking for people to help us build a sustainable, long-lasting company.
Every person we hire will have the following qualities:
- Empathy and interpersonal sensitivity – great listening skills.
- Emotional generosity – ability and willingness to offer comfort and support to people in distress, whether clients or team members.
- Resilience – ability to manage one’s own emotions, demonstrate self-control under pressure, and practice self-care.
- Flexibility – ability to adapt to new situations and to change focus unexpectedly.
Recompose is part of a global movement of organizations working to:
- Advocate for climate healing, soil health, and environmental justice.
- Be anti-racist. Recompose is committed to advocating for and protecting the rights of BIPOC, religious minorities, and undocumented people.
- Engage with the work of queer feminist practices of inclusion and equity. Recompose is committed to advocating for and protecting the rights of women, transgender people, and gender nonconforming people.
Open Positions
We currently have no open positions.
Recompose welcomes connections with licensed funeral directors and embalmers drawn to our mission and approach to death care. If you are interested in future opportunities, please reach out to hr@recompose.life. You can also subscribe to our newsletter to learn about future opportunities as soon as they become available.
Invest
We are committed to growing our company organically and deliberately with strong and enduring financial results.