Proponents of composting human bodies tout a greener way to return to the earth. This practice is currently not permitted in Quebec, but consultations are taking place in this regard.
Body composting, also known as “humusation” or “natural organic reduction,” seems to be gaining traction in recent years as at least five US states have legalized the procedure. Washington was the first state to act in 2020, and the governor of California signed a bill to do so in September of this year.
Meanwhile, Oregon, Colorado and Vermont have passed similar laws. Others are currently making their way through the legislative process in other states like Illinois or New York.
The process varies depending on the company offering it. Return Home, Washington, talks about a process that “gently transforms the human body into life-giving soil using alfalfa, straw, sawdust, and time,” in a capsule made to this end. After two months, some 1,150 liters of soil are returned to the relatives of the deceased or laid out in a wooded area maintained by the company.
“More and more of us want to benefit from humusation,” says Francis Busigny, one of the instigators of a petition launched in 2014 to legalize the procedure in Belgium. For him, the composting of his body represents “the certainty of contributing, positively, to the pursuit of life on our magnificent planet, in the best conditions”, and he denounces the lack of progress in this direction in Europe.
PHOTO GRANT HINDSLEY, THE NEW YORK TIMES ARCHIVES
This pile of dirt serves as a grave marker for human remains interred in Snohomish, Washington.
Not provided for by law in Quebec
In Quebec, the Funeral Activities Act and its implementing regulations “are silent on the disposal of human remains by composting,” says Marjorie Larouche, spokesperson for the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS). The two planned disposal methods, burial and cremation, have definitions that exclude composting.
“Within the meaning of the Act, cremation is a service of disposing of corpses by fire or by any other chemical or physical process”, while “composting is a biological process”, she explains. As for burial, the regulations provide that the corpse “must be placed in a coffin in such a way as to prevent leakage and allow safe handling,” she said. “It would therefore not be permissible to simply bury the body in the ground without first placing it in a coffin. »
“The remains of a deceased must be refrigerated, be buried or receive embalming. It cannot be left at room temperature” to decompose, adds France Denis, spokesperson for the Federation of Funeral Cooperatives of Quebec (FCFQ).
She says Federation co-ops, which have nearly 20% of the market, currently have “no demand” for these services. “We can think that if the humusation were offered, it would generate interest among the population, she adds however. We follow with interest the evolution of this practice. »
Cremation, a major source of GHGs
Proponents of composting point out that cremation results in significant greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, while traditional burial takes up a lot of space in addition to using materials that do not degrade easily.
Mme Larouche, of the MSSS, indicates that “consultations are underway to assess whether human composting could eventually be permitted in Quebec”. They aim in particular to verify whether this way of doing things involves risks for public health or ethical issues. The MSSS received two requests from citizens on this subject in 2022 and another from an unspecified company, but Mme Larouche did not offer a timeline for possible legalization.
In the meantime, American companies are offering the service to relatives of Canadians who want it. “Return Home can now accept bodies at our Seattle-based facility from Canada” and return the resulting compost north of the border, it was announced in January.
Green burials certified by the Green Burial Society of Canada (GBSC) are also possible in Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta and Nova Scotia. It is then simply a question of placing the body in the ground, without embalming, in a shroud or a biodegradable coffin.
While there is no cemetery certified for green burial in Quebec, companies such as Alfred Dallaire Memoria offer options like eco-friendly caskets or urns and embalming-free exhibits.
The FCFQ is also making efforts to reduce its environmental footprint, in particular by planting trees and choosing suppliers whose products “meet sustainable development criteria,” says Ms.me Dennis. “We have a sustainable development committee that has been working on the subject for fifteen years. »