On Friday, Washington state lawmakers passed a bill that would allow residents to take part in what they are calling “natural organic reduction” of human remains, citing in part research that said careful composted human remains could be safe for use in a household garden, reports said.
The Seattle Times reports Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee’s office said he did not review the final legislation. Inslee– who is running for president in 2020– has been active on Twitter since the state Senate and House of Representative passed bill 5001, but hasn’t yet mentioned the bill in any posts.
Bill 5001 reportedly passed very easily and had bipartisan support.
Reports say that the measure has been in the making for several years. There was apparently a trial that involved six backers who agreed to the organic reduction. The results were positive and “the soil smelled like soil and nothing else,” the report said.
Troy Hottle, a fellow at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, told The Seattle Times that the method is as “close to the natural process of decomposition [as] you’d assume a body would undergo before we had an industrialized society.”
An NBC News report in 2018 said the procedure could cost around $5,500.
“People from all over the state who wrote to me are very excited about the prospect of becoming a tree or having a different alternative for themselves,” Democratic state Sen. Jamie Pedersen told NBC.
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