A Historic Cemetery Needs a Plan B

One of the nation’s oldest cemeteries is embracing one of the newest approaches to burial: human composting. The Wall Street Journal reports that Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn is partnering with the German company Meine Erde (My Earth) to introduce a process known as “natural organic reduction.”

For those familiar with environmentally focused burials, the method may sound recognizable: the deceased is placed in a sealed vessel filled with clover, hay, and straw. The container carefully controls airflow, temperature, and moisture while microbes break down the body. What remains, aside from bones that are later processed, becomes a nutrient-rich compost.

Green-Wood is launching the program with 18 vessels as it confronts a challenge facing cemeteries nationwide: limited space. The Journal notes that roughly 3 million Americans die each year, a number projected to rise to 4 million within the next two decades as the population ages.

In response, 14 states now permit human composting, beginning with Washington in 2019. A small but growing number of companies, including Recompose and Return Home near Seattle, specialize in the practice. The approach has drawn opposition from some funeral industry groups and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, while advocates argue that resistance may be influenced as much by economic concerns as by religious or scientific ones.

Green-Wood Cemetery president Meera Joshi points to the demographic reality driving interest in alternatives. “We will one day come to a time when we won’t have the capacity for traditional burials,” she says. “But that doesn’t mean we have to close our doors.”

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