Recompose
TypePublic-benefit corporation
IndustryDeathcare
Founded2017
FounderKatrina Spade
HeadquartersSeattle, WA
Websitewww.recompose.life

Recompose is a public benefit corporation founded by designer and death care advocate Katrina Spade in 2017,[1] building upon her 2014 non-profit organization Urban Death Project.

Recompose is a Washington state based company offering a death care service to convert human bodies into soil through a process known as natural organic reduction, or human composting. The process, which takes about 30 days,[2] is marketed as a green alternative to the existing disposal options of cremation and burial.[1][3]

In March 2020, Recompose announced the appointment of new general manager Kira Franz.[4]

The Recompose Process

How it Works

Recompose has a patent pending process where bodies are placed in a vessel with natural materials such as wood chips and alfalfa.[3] A fan system is set up to provide air that ensures enough oxygen is getting to the body, and the soft tissue[5] breaks down in about a month, transforming into about two wheelbarrows worth of soil.[3] Families of the deceased can keep the soil, use it to plant a tree, or through a partnership with Forterra, Washington's largest land conservation organization, can donate soil to help rehabilitate forest land in Washington State.[6]

Safety

To prove natural organic reduction as safe and effective, Recompose participated in a study with Western Washington University designed and managed by soil scientist Lynne Carpenter-Boggs.[7] Six donors participated in the study and Boggs, who is working for recompose as a paid advisor,[8] indicated the result "was clean, rich, odorless soil that passed all federal and state safety guidelines for potentially hazardous pathogens and pollutants, such as metals".[7]

History

Origins

Recompose founder Spade was raised in rural New Hampshire by a family who wasn't religious, but found spirituality in nature.[9][10]

Considering her own mortality Spade wanted more options that were less toxic,[11] environmentally and economically friendly,[12] and options that allowed family and friends to participate in the care of their loved one.[13] She formulated early ideas about the possibility of human recomposition but when she learned about the practice of livestock mortality composting, she began work to create the same option for humans.[14]

Katrina Spade was awarded the Echoing Green Climate Fellowship for this work in 2014.[15]

Urban Death Project

Urban Death Project was founded in 2014.[10] It formed a partnership with Western Carolina University's Forensic Anthropology Department.[16]

Urban Death Project's Kickstarter Campaign raised $91,000 from over 1200 Backers in 2015.[17]

Research began in 2016 with Washington State University's Soil Science Department led by Lynne-Carpenter Boggs, PhD, Associate Professor of Sustainable and Organic Agriculture.[12], while law students at Wake Forest University school of law examined the legal hurdles.[12]

In 2017 Urban Death Project's Western Carolina University Forensic Anthropology partnership was featured in Caitlin Doughty's bestseller From Here to Eternity; Traveling the World to Find the Good Death.

In 2017 the non-profit Urban Death Project dissolved and Recompose (a benefit corporation) was founded.

Facility

After Washington State legalized natural organic reduction in 2020, Recompose opened its first facility on December 20, 2020[18] outside of Seattle, Washington. The original plan for a 18,500-square-foot facility, designed by architecture firm Olson Kundig, housing 75 vessels "arranged to surround a large, airy gathering space[19] were put on hold due to COVID 19.[20] Instead, a much smaller location which Spade describes as “a workhorse facility” that holds only 10 vessels and has no public-gathering space opened in Kent, Washington. [20] However, friends and chosen family of the deceased can watch that laying-in process over a livestream.[18]

References

  1. 1 2 Laylin, Tafline (2018-12-29). "Washington could become the first state to legalize human composting". NBC News. Archived from the original on 2023-05-24. Retrieved 2023-05-24.
  2. ↑ "Why human composting might be the green alternative to conventional burials".
  3. 1 2 3 "Soil Instead Of Ashes: Human Composting Is About To Become Legal In Washington State".
  4. ↑ "Human composting company Recompose raises $4.7M and hires GM ahead of 2021 Seattle opening". GeekWire. 2020-03-11. Retrieved 2020-03-12.
  5. ↑ Ghosh, Pallab (2020-02-16). "Human compost funerals 'better for environment'". BBC News. Retrieved 2020-02-16.
  6. ↑ "Recompose, the human-composting alternative to burial and cremation, finds a home in Seattle's Sodo area".
  7. 1 2 "Washington becomes first state to legalize human composting".
  8. ↑ "Recompose, the first human-composting funeral home in the U.S., is now open for business". 2021-01-22. Retrieved 2023-10-09.
  9. ↑ Bayles, Cara (2015-07-15). "From Compost You Came and to Compost You Shall Return". Slate. ISSN 1091-2339. Retrieved 2018-02-27.
  10. 1 2 "Katrina Spade | Echoing Green". www.echoinggreen.org. Retrieved 2018-02-27.
  11. ↑ "The Architect Who Wants to Redesign Being Dead". The Stranger. Retrieved 2018-02-27.
  12. 1 2 3 "Seattle could get an Urban Death Project human composter in just 7 years". The Seattle Times. 2016-10-28. Retrieved 2018-02-27.
  13. ↑ "The Urban Death Project: Bringing Death Back Into the Urban Realm". Metropolis. 2017-02-24. Retrieved 2018-02-27.
  14. ↑ "The Architect Who Wants to Redesign Being Dead". The Stranger. Retrieved 2018-02-26.
  15. ↑ "The Urban Death Project Will Help You Give Back—by Turning You Into Compost". Seattle Weekly. Retrieved 2018-02-28.
  16. ↑ "WCU contingent works on latest phase of Urban Death Project". WCU News. 2016-02-04. Retrieved 2018-02-26.
  17. ↑ "the Urban Death Project: Laying Our Loved Ones to Rest". Kickstarter. Retrieved 2018-02-26.
  18. 1 2 Kiley, Brendan (Jan 22, 2021). "Recompose, the first human-composting funeral home in the U.S., is now open for business". The Seattle Times.
  19. ↑ "The world's first human composting facility will let us recycle ourselves".
  20. 1 2 Kiley, Brendan (Aug 7, 2020). "COVID moves Recompose, the human-composting alternative to burial and cremation, into smaller space, accelerated timeline". The Seattle Times.

External Websites

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