It’s a growing trend and it could be coming to the Eastern Shore. For people who want to go green, even into the beyond, there’s an innovative new funerary industry that will turn your body into ready-made compost.
The first human composting facility on the East Coast opened recently in Elkridge. The company, Earth Funeral, wants to use some of that compost to grow a forest near Snow Hill. The company is purchasing a 14.5-acre parcel near Snow Hill for a project that would use human compost to cultivate a new forest. An exception is required because state law prohibits such compost from being used to grow food for humans or livestock.
The Seattle-based company is represented by Berlin attorney Hugh Cropper.
“This is a natural alternative to burial,” Cropper told the Worcester County Board of Zoning Appeals, which gave a green light to the project in August. “This is where human decedents are taken to the facility of Earth Funeral and converted into compost, a soil amendment. That compost or soil amendment is placed on the land. It's tilled into the land, and then they intend to, with a forestry plan, plant trees.”
While some of the local residents have reservations about the project, Cropper said the idea springs from the natural desire to memorialize loved ones with trees.
“You go on every website of every funeral home,” he said. “It says plant a tree in honor of our loved one. But what should be better than returning the nutrients back to the soil and have them absorbed, composed in a natural way? The more I think about it, it grows on me.”
But the idea hasn't grown yet on some of the neighboring farmers and residents who question the impact on their communities. Among the opponents is 92-year-old Roger Richardson, a former Maryland Secretary of Agriculture who lives and farms nearby.
“Soil made from human composting can never be sold, mixed with regular compost or used to grow food or for people or livestock,” he told the zoning panel. “Spreading this material here would completely ruin a chance of using that land for agriculture farming in the future.”
Richardson also questioned how the human compost would be contained in the shore's watery environment.
“I didn't particularly like spreading chicken manure and God knows I'm not going to spread people,” he said.
Earth's funeral says it's hired professional forestry managers to carefully spread and cultivate the new forest, but neighbors raised other concerns about wind, drainage, and the future maintenance of the site.
“My only concern is that I'm going to be, Roger and I will be, the guinea pigs for this project,” said Robert Jones, another bordering landowner. “Apparently it hasn't happened before on a scale of any size. But in the end, four years from now, what concerns me is I might be the guy that's out there looking and saying, ‘What in the heck has happened?’”
Families often take possession of all or part of their deceased’s composted remains. But the industry still needs land to deposit what the families don’t take.
“Some families do take the whole portion,” explained Barrett Krueger, Earth Funeral senior compost engineer. “They’ll show up to the facility with their minivan or their pickup truck and put it in there. They'll take it home. Some families will show up with a bucket brigade type situation. They'll put it all in five-gallon buckets.”
While the practice is growing, Cropper said he understands that it's not for everyone.
“It has become popular,” Cropper said. “It's in 13 states and it's going in more. I will readily admit it's not a use that everybody might be happy is next to their house…. And some people are going to have religious beliefs that prevent this and we're very respectful of that.”
While the project passed the zoning board 4-2, it could still face court challenges from aggrieved landowners or even from the Worcester County Board of Commissioners.
