'Newsweek' reports that it's now legal to be turned into compost after you die in Oregon.<br />On June 15, 2021, Governor Kate Brown signed House Bill 2574 into law, adding natural organic reduction as an option for aftercare.<br />The bill defines natural organic reduction as , "the contained, accelerated conversion of human remains to soil."<br />The law takes effect in July 2022. The practice is currently only allowed in two other states.<br />Washington state was the first to allow such burials, followed by Colorado.<br />The first facility accepting human bodies for composting, Recompose, opened in Seattle in December 2020.<br />"The environmental impacts of conventional burial and cremation are profound." Recompose, via 'Newsweek'.<br />"In the United States, cemeteries take up 1 million acres of land, and caskets use 4 million acres of forest every year. Human composting saves a metric ton of carbon dioxide per body when compared to conventional burial or cremation." Recompose, via 'Newsweek'.<br />New York and California have both proposed bills which would legalize natural organic reduction if passed.
