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VIVA – Starting in 2027, California will legalize 'human composting', and offer the option of human composting or natural organic reduction after death.
Because of the draft bill by Governor Gavin Newsom, people will be allowed to choose human composting after death, instead of traditional methods such as burial and cremation.
Human composting would place the body in a reusable container, surround it with wood chips and aerate it to allow microbes and bacteria to grow.
After about a month, the remains will rot and completely turn into soil. Companies like Recompose in Washington offer services in natural organic reduction facilities.
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- Irwandi Arsyad
Not like a cremation, the process avoids the burning of fossil fuels and carbon monoxide emissions. Cremation in the US alone emits about 360,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year according to National Geographic estimates.
According to the Metro website on Friday, September 23, 2022, the author of the draft bill Democratic Assemblyman Cristina Garcia said the threat of climate change is motivating a new law on human composting.
"AB 351 will provide California residents with additional options to be more environmentally friendly and provide them with another option for burial," Garcia said in a statement.
With climate change and sea level rise as very real threats to our environment, this is an alternative method of final disposition that will not contribute to emissions to our atmosphere.
"I look forward to continuing my legacy of fighting for clean air using human remains to plant trees," she wrote in the statement.
The new draft bill would prohibit the merging of several bodies of people unless they are relatives. However, it would still be legal to sell the land or use it to grow food for human consumption.
