The Oklahoma State House passed a bipartisan bill this week legalizing the use of decomposed human remains for soil fertilizer.
The bill, HB 3660, includes “natural organic reduction” as a form of cremation. It defines “natural organic reduction” as the “contained accelerated reduction and conversion of human remains to soil in a licensed crematory using heat, water, and organic material.” The legislation goes on to define “crematory” as a “furnace or alkaline hydrolysis vessel or natural organic reduction vessel” used for the cremation of human remains.
“Today the House advanced HB3660, a bill to legalize the use of composted human bodies as fertilizer. If this bill is put into law, Oklahoma joins 14 BLUE states that have legalized this process,” Republican Oklahoma State Rep. Jim Shaw wrote on social media on Tuesday. “So, instead of outlawing this type of practice outright, we’re on track to take the use of humanure as fertilizer another disgusting step forward.”
A similar law was passed in New York in 2023. Democrat New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed Assembly Bill A382, which legalizes the composting of human remains in the state. New York was the sixth state in the US to legalize this form of burial, following Washington, Colorado, Oregon, Vermont, and California.
The process involves placing the body in a reusable vessel with a bedding of wood chips or straw, which is then broken down by microbes into nutrient-dense soil that can be used as fertilizer. Advocates of this method argue that it is a cheaper and more environmentally friendly alternative to traditional burials, which use fossil fuels.
