In Colorado, state legislature is poised to legalize human composting after a lawmaker began pondering her own mortality. State Representative Brianna Titone told the Baltimore Sun she sponsored the bill because neither end-of-life option—burial and cremation—appealed to her.
Governor Jared Polis has indicated he will sign the bill into law, which will officially make Colorado the second state, after Washington, to legalize the process. “What can be more personal than the right to decide how your own body is dispensed with after death, and this bill empowers individuals with another choice,” Polis said in a statement.
Composting a person takes around 30 days and yields about a cubic yard of soil, according to Recompose, a human composting company operating in Washington. Katrina Spade, Recompose’s co-founder and CEO, said the company is already considering setting up a facility near Denver.
The Colorado bill does state the human compost cannot be sold or used to grow food. Oregon, California, and New York are considering similar bills.