Sydney MP moves bill to make human composting a reality

When it is Teresa Russell's time to go, she wants to be turned into human compost.

Ms Russell has spent the past two years advocating for "terramation", a process where a body is placed into a vessel with organic matter and broken down into soil.

The practice is currently only legal in Germany and 14 US states, which is why Ms Russell established the non-profit Earthly Legacy to bring the method to Australia.

"One of the things that we have to do is we have to break down the taboo that exists in our society about dying,"

she said.

Ms Russell said she wanted to offer a sustainable, greener alternative to burials and cremations, but the core of her mission was to provide a cheaper and equitable option over time.

"We need to spread composting across all levels of society, and in fact help the poorest have a dignified, lovely, gentle, natural disposal of their bodies just as the wealthy can afford," she said.

To make her dream a reality, Ms Russell enlisted the help of Sydney MP Alex Greenwich.

Mr Greenwich was expected to introduce a private member's bill on Thursday to pave the way for human composting, legally known as natural organic reduction, to be allowed in New South Wales.

"We are running out of burial space [and] that space can cost as much as $50,000," Mr Greenwich said.

"We also know that cremation, can increasingly become expensive, with the upselling of coffins."

The cost of a funeral can range from $8,000 to around $20,000 depending on the type of services chosen, according to the government website Moneysmart.

This sum can cover prices related to a coffin, burial or cremation fees as well as a cemetery plot.

Ahead of introducing the legislation, Mr Greenwich toured facilities Return Home and Recompose in Seattle, where human composting is legal.

He said if the bill was passed, sites could include a mixture of urban, semi-urban and rural and regional areas.

Mr Greenwich said the eco-friendly burial method could become available as soon as 2027, and while pricing was yet to be determined he anticipated it would become "cheaper than cremation".

"The environmental impacts of human body composting are minimal," he said.

"We become about a cubic metre of really high-quality topsoil that can be used to regenerate land, that can be used in a person's garden where you can plant a tree to … honour a loved one."

Premier Chris Minns on Sunday said he "felt a bit weird about it" and he was going to "kick the tyres" on the proposed legislation.

'Enough for a small garden'

Katrina Spade has been operating Recompose since 2020, about a year after Washington State legalised natural organic reduction.

While methods for human composting vary, Ms Spade said at her Seattle facility that composting a body took eight weeks and occurred in two phases.

During the first stage the body is placed inside a vessel filled with wood chips, hay and sawdust.

Microbes that remain in the body after death help speed up the decomposition process.

"Then the mid-phase is where we screen for bone and non-organics, like a titanium hip," Ms Spade said.

"The reduced bone and the soil that is what remains, and are recombined together for a curing phase of about one month."

The final result is 1 cubic metre of nutrient-rich soil, which is enough for a small garden, Ms Spade said.

"About half of our families choose to take everything home and the rest typically take a bag or two and donate the rest to land conservation organisations," she said.

Creating social change

Tui Davidson from Earthly Remains in the ACT said Australia had a "very locked market" of mostly burial and cremation, with slight movement on eco-friendly options like shrouded cremation and natural burials.

She said she was "super excited" to hear about Mr Greenwich's bill after spending years pushing for the practice to be introduced.

"If I talk to 10 people and three of them talk to others, then the word is slowly getting out there and that's what creates social change," she said.

"Rather than finding the idea confronting and frightening people go, 'Oh that's actually really interesting, that sounds sensible'."

Ms Davidson said she did not believe that cultural acceptance would be a huge barrier to establishing human composting as a common practice.

"If you think about it, the Catholic Church never wanted to agree to cremation and yet 70 per cent of people now cremate predominantly because of cost," she said.

"There will always be … religious and cultural reasons why some people will not choose this and that's their right.

"All I'm seeking is another choice."