Turn your remains into potting soil? See how this business aims to alter funeral industry
Life’s final decision has long been a simple binary choice: burial or cremation.
Until now.
Tucked away in an Auburn industrial park, the world’s first large-scale body-to-soil facility is about to open.
Return Home aims to offer a third choice for the recently deceased and their families: terramation. That’s the term founder and CEO Micah Truman uses to describe what the funeral industry calls natural organic reduction.
“The desire to go back to the earth,” is how Truman sums up the philosophy. “The desire not to pollute as your last act is a big thing, and it’s going to be a game changer.”
The process isn’t just for those concerned with the environment. Some just want a choice beyond burial or cremation, he said.
Truman doesn’t like the term “human composting.” Thus terramation, an earthy version of cremation.
“We want to use a word that makes people feel we’re part of the earth, and we’re going back to it,” Truman said.
A late March tour inside the warehouse-like facility revealed work underway for an April opening.
Given his uncertain opening date, Truman’s eventual first clients are most likely still living.
Washington is the only state that allows natural organic reduction, but the process seems likely to spread to other states.
“We are going to have the entire world’s eyes on us for this next year as we do this,” Truman said. His is not the only company to offer the service. Other competing businesses are working on opening soon in Washington.
Truman, 50, is new to the funeral industry. He has a background in international finance and has spent decades living in China and other overseas locations.
Tired of the travel, Truman said Washington’s pending legislation that allowed natural organic reduction caught his eye in 2018. Gov. Jay Inslee signed it into law in 2019.
“I began to talk to my mom’s friends, and there was real interest from her people,” he said. He saw an opportunity to get in on a new industry at the starting point. “I love businesses that start as a very small ripple but have the chance to be a massive wave.”
Decomposing at scale
The 11,500-square-foot facility can transform 72 bodies per month into soil using what Truman calls vessels — large metal boxes.
Return Home’s process is basically an expedited version of what would occur naturally if a body was buried in the earth without a casket, concrete vault or embalming.
Truman has yet to have a human customer, but he and his crew have been using pigs as test subjects. Inside a conference room, he cheerily uncovers a bowl holding what looks like rich brown potting soil. It’s the decomposed remains of a pig and straw. There is no odor.
Although he wouldn’t allow a reporter and photographer to look inside the vessels due to proprietary technology, the vessel room is open to visitors.
“Anyone can walk into this place, anyone can stand here, anyone can come visit,” Truman said. “If we have total transparency, we think people will feel better.”
The tan-colored vessels are 8-feet-long and 3-1/2 feet tall and wide. They can be stacked three high on racks.
An enormous, many-tentacled ventilation system that Truman calls “Octopus” provides air exchange during decomposition. The system can adjust air flow to each vessel individually based on measurements the system monitors.
The system uses extensive filters. Truman promises there will be no odors associated with the process.
Bodies are placed in the vessel and surrounded with straw. A 200-pound body would use 800 pounds of straw.
Along with the air exchange, water is added as needed.
Like cremation, bones are left behind after decomposition is complete. Those are ground into a fine powder and mixed with the soil. The soil is put in a sealed bin and left to rest for a month.
The $4,950 process will take two months, Truman said. A 200-pound body will produce 500-600 pounds of soil. It’s given to the family in an eco-friendly box.
“The family can now take their soil back home and use it as they see fit to celebrate their loved one,” Truman said.
Some may choose to place the soil in a favorite garden or forest. It can be divided and given to multiple family members and friends.
The soil is so rich that it’s more of a garden amendment or natural fertilizer, Truman said.
Because the process produces so much soil some families might not be able to handle it. For those situations, Return Home has purchased an eight-acre parcel of land the company is transforming into a park. The company will also deposit the soil on forest lands.
Starting a new industry
Truman is the majority owner of the business. He wouldn’t say how much startup costs have been other than it’s more than $1 million.
One of his biggest hurdles is just getting people used to the idea. As much as people long for options beyond cremation and burial, it’s still a tough topic to bring up with family members, he said.
“To talk about this means we have to talk about our own mortality,” Truman said. “More importantly, we have to talk about the mortality of the people we love.”
A family can hold services at Return Home’s facility. They can put anything inside the vessel with their loved one as long as it’s organic and will decompose along with the body: flowers, paper notes, a favorite food, someone’s favorite whiskey — minus the bottle.
Truman is aiming for an April opening. He still needs a 16-body capacity cooler for clients about to enter a vessel. But the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a cooler shortage, he said.
Funeral industry responds
The funeral industry is poised to accept natural organic reduction as a viable alternative to burial and cremation, said Rob Goff, executive director of the Washington State Funeral Directors Association.
“As long as we can support and help a family, then we’re more than excited about being a part of something brand new like this,” Goff said.
Funereal attitudes and practices have changed and continue to do so in Washington and the United States, Goff said.
When Goff started in the business three decades ago, cremation made up 30-40% of the business. Today, it’s closer to 80%, he said. Some urban cemeteries are selling off unused land, Goff said.
The switch to cremation is partly due to price, partly due to a restless, moving nation and partly due to changes in attitudes about burials and graveside funerals.
Additionally, Goff said Washington is home to immigrants and their descendants who have long practiced funeral rites that go beyond burial or standard cremation such as open-air pyres and the removal of bones from cremated remains.
Regardless of the body’s final disposition, funeral homes can still offer services for anyone — including those who choose the terramation process, Goff said. Embalming is not required for services, even an open casket, he said.
“It certainly is suggested for the preservation as well as the appearance of the deceased,” Goff said of embalming. “But ultimately, there’s no law that says you have to be embalmed to have a viewing.”
For Goff, Return Home and similar services becoming available is part of the evolution of the funeral industry.
“I don’t think we have a choice,” Goff said. “It’s here. It’s now. It’s happening.”
This story was originally published March 30, 2021 at 5:05 AM with the headline "Turn your remains into potting soil? See how this business aims to alter funeral industry."
