Human Composting Services Connecticut
Return Home offers Terramation (also known as Human Composting) services to Connecticut along with all 50 U.S. states and Canada. We happily serve Connecticut residents and offer you the ability to learn more about the process and legislative status using this page.
What is Human Composting
Human Composting, also known as Terramation or natural organic reduction, is the gentle process of transforming human remains into life-giving soil. This is known as an environmentally friendly alternative to cremation and burial. Not all Connecticut human composting providers are created equal; Return Home provides the most ethical, gentle, transparent, and involved process currently available. Click here to learn more about why we’re different.
Is Human Composting Legal in Connecticut?
Although conducting the Human Composting process within the state of Connecticut isn’t currently legal, Return Home can still easily and lawfully serve families in Connecticut and across the country out of our Auburn, WA facility. We have served families from over 10 U.S. states so far, and that number continues to grow. Use the map on this page to see where human composting is legal and the status of legislation in your state.
Connecticut State Funeral Resources
More Information About Connecticut Human Composting
Terramation, also known as Human Composting, is the process of gently and naturally transforming human remains into soil. We have optimized existing science to completely Terramate a human body in 60-90 days. The body is placed into a vessel and is surrounded with organics; a mixture of alfalfa, straw, and sawdust. This then stimulates the microbes that already exist in our bodies to become highly active, and rapidly transform into soil. This soil is then returned to the family, and any amount they aren’t able to take is donated to our eight-acre Woodland at no charge.
The Terramation process is passive and uses nothing but organic materials, moisture, and airflow to completely transform a body into soil. Unlike cremation, resulting carbon and other nutrients in the Terramated remains are sequestered into the soil rather than being released into the atmosphere. Terramated remains are abundant in life-giving nutrients and can be scattered anywhere that cremated remains can. This means that families can take them home in an urn, place them in a cemetery, or use them to plant trees or flowers in an arboretum. Anywhere that Terramated remains go sees new life grow!
The Terramation (Human Composting) process yields about 1 cubic yard of what is technically compost, and it is a perfect soil amendment to gardens or house plants. As earlier stated, if the family cannot receive the full amount of soil they can choose to donate it to Return Home’s Woodland in Kent, WA that was in desperate need of revitalization to help restart the cycle of life.
Currently, Return Home provides Terramation services to Connecticut along with all 50 U.S. states and Canada by working with local funeral providers. We arrange this directly with a funeral home that we vet personally, or we can use a chosen funeral home that has helped your family in the past.
Terramation has significant environmental advantages to cremation. Many people assume cremation to be the “greenest” alternative to traditional US burial, and that is simply not the case. One cremation uses 30 gallons of fuel and releases 530 pounds of CO2 into the air. Cremations in the U.S. alone emit 250,000 tons of CO2 into our atmosphere, as almost two million people are cremated in the US each year.
Burial is no better. It requires land use in perpetuity and uses 4.3 million gallons of embalming fluid (and all the 16 oz containers holding the fluid); 20 million board feet of hardwoods, including rainforest wood; 1.6 million tons of concrete; 17,000 tons of copper and bronze; and 64,500 tons of steel. That is as much steel as it takes to build the Golden Gate bridge, but instead of using that precious material for something that helps humanity, we bury it permanently underground. Not to mention that caskets and vaults leach iron, copper, lead, zinc, and cobalt into our soil.
Return Home’s mission is to provide families access to mindful, gentle, transparent death care that continues the cycle of life. If you are interested in supporting and representing the movement, please visit returnhome.com/idratherbecompost