Body composting a ‘green’ alternative to burial, cremation

By THOMAS PEIPERT
Associated Press

LAFAYETTE, Colo. (AP) — A Colorado company is hoping to usher in a new and more environmentally friendly era of mortuary science that includes the natural organic reduction of human remains. On Sept. 7, Colorado became the second state after Washington to allow human body composting, and Oregon will allow the practice next summer. Seth Viddal with The Natural Funeral in Lafayette, Colorado, has built a “vessel” filled with wood chips and straw. It takes about six months for a body to compost in the vessel, and the final product is enough “soil” to fill the bed of a pickup. That can then be returned to the earth.