Human Composting Company Recompose Leads Charge in New Industry
Posted on 06/03/2021
Soylent Green is a 1973 U.S. ecological dystopian thriller film directed by Richard Fleischer and starring Charlton Heston, Leigh Taylor-Young, and Edward G. Robinson (in his final film performance before his death in January 1973). The plot of the movie is set in 2022 and covers the the cumulative effects of overpopulation, pollution, and some apparent climate catastrophe have caused severe worldwide shortages of food, water and housing. Eventually in the end, Charlton Heston (Thorn) discovers a truck transporting bodies from the euthanasia center to a recycling plant, where the secret is revealed – human corpses are being converted into Soylent Green.
In the United States and in many Western countries, the deceased have two main options, burial or cremation. In Seattle, a company called Recompose, PBC is creating a facility to have human composting. The company wants to convert human remains into soil. Recompose was founded by Katrina Spade. The State of Washington passed a state bill to become the first U.S. state to permit the composting of human remains. Washington Governor Jay Inslee signed the bill (SB 5001) which passed with bipartisan majority: 80-16 in the House and 38-11 in the Senate.
Recompose takes deceased human bodies and covers them with wood chips and straw. The bodies are aerated. The first Recompose facility opened December 20, 2020 outside of Seattle. Katrina Spade and Recompose are actively involved in moves to legalize the human composting process in California. Colorado was the second state to permit human composting.