One of the world’s largest human composting facilities just opened near the nation’s capital, according to Axios.
Earth Funeral recently opened an approximately 36,000-square-foot human composting site in Elkridge, Maryland, Axios reported Monday. It has a capacity for 56 “composting vessels.” CEO Tom Harries told Axios he plans to double that capacity and continue the company’s nationwide expansion.
Earth Funeral announced the facility’s opening in a Facebook post on May 5.
Human composting is legal in 14 states, according to Earth Funeral’s state tracker, and Oklahoma nearly joined them this year. However, Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt vetoed a bill aimed at legalizing it within the state, News 9 reported May 13. (RELATED: Oklahoma Advances Bill To Turn Dead Humans Into Actual Fertilizer)
Human composting is also known as “soil transportation,” which is “a sustainable alternative to cremation, traditional burial and aquamation,” according to Earth Funeral’s website. This is done by placing a body “in a vessel with a mix of organic materials to provide the right balance of nitrogen and carbon” to break down the remains naturally.
Republican State Rep. Jim Shaw spearheaded that bill’s opposition, the Daily Caller News Foundation previously reported. When asked for comment on the new Maryland facility, he told the DCNF in an email Wednesday that “this site and the overall practice of turning dead bodies into human compost should be shocking and surprising to everyone.”
One retired Air Force Colonel reportedly told Axios that he discovered Earth Funeral when planning his estate and plans to lobby the Arlington National Cemetery to permit composted remains. Shaw told the DCNF he “can’t think of anything worse to dishonor the former or fallen military service members who served and possibly gave their lives for our country,” regarding that comment.
Oklahoma State Capitol (Shutterstock/Paul Brady Photography)
“If we start blurring the lines between dignity and utility, you do it first in death, then eventually you start doing it in life. Every regime that has treated human beings as raw material whether it was for labor, or experimentation or disposal, began that same quiet shift into darkness. A person becomes secondary, the system becomes primary,” Shaw said, quoting Glenn Beck’s coverage of the recently vetoed bill.
“Ultimately, the way we treat our dead says a lot about what we believe as a society. We need to be very concerned about viewing people as, and turning them into, products,” Shaw said.
“Most people intrinsically know that human beings are not waste, we are not raw material to be repurposed in death or in life. We were created by God,” Shaw told the DCNF.
Earth Funeral’s service takes around 45 days and costs on average less than $6,000, according to Axios. Families are also allowed to keep or donate the roughly 300-pounds of soil afterwards.
When asked how Earth Funeral would address religious or moral opposition to human composting, CEO Tom Harries said “this is purely about consumer choice. Soil transformation is one option – an environmental alternative to burial and cremation – not a mandate. We welcome questions and concerns from anyone looking for new, greener death care options.”
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