Earthly Remains founder Tui Davidson. Photo: Tui Davidson.
Burial and cremation are the tried and tested options for sending off your loved ones when they throw off this mortal coil.
But Canberra woman Tui Davidson is advocating for another, cheaper, more “sustainable” option to be made available to local families – one she expects is not far away.
It’s composting, also known as “terramation”. Yep, the breaking down of the human body by the same means as your kitchen waste, and within as little as 60 days.
“No one in Australia is doing it yet, but it is done overseas,” she says.
Several US states allow it, as does Sweden, and the UK Government is currently “welcoming” proposals to regulate new end-of-life methods that include it.
Ms Davidson, under the name of her company Earthly Remains, will head to Tasmania to present on it during an industry discussion at the Beaker Street Festival on 16 August, and she reckons it’s “definitely the best way to go”.
Here’s how it works.
“You have a vessel with some wood chips and some organic matter like lucerne or alfalfa, and you place the body on top of it and seal up the vessel, providing some aeration so there’s air going in, as well as an outlet for gases coming out,” she explains.
The vessel is rotated every few days, reaching temperatures between 50 and 70 degrees Celsius. About 30 days later, only harder materials like the bones and teeth remain intact. These are extracted and ground down to a fine powder before everything is returned to the vessel for another 30 days.
By the end of the total 60 days, you effectively have a “useful soil amendment”. In other words, garden mulch.
“You certainly wouldn’t want to be putting it on your veggie patch, but for planting trees and rose bushes, absolutely!” Ms Davidson says.
“If you think about it – and I’m sure you can still go to a gardening shop and buy this stuff – my grandfather used to put blood and bone on the garden.”
Human composting is legal in several US states. Photo: Recompose, US.
Ms Davidson doesn’t have a “background in science or composting or the funeral industry” but she does have personal experience – while they were both teenagers, she watched her sister pass away before her eyes, “slowly and painfully”, to a very rare brain infection caused by measles.
“That was 40 years ago now, but … that meant that I had an early experience with death.”
She revisited the topic in 2018 when a friend’s dad – who had worked all his life as an urban planner and had a “serious commitment to the environment” – died.
“I realised the industry’s quite complacent and isn’t interested in change because they’re happy making their money, but something needs to be done.”
Ms Davidson’s first venture into the funeral space was Tender Funerals, Australia’s first not-for-profit funeral service that strives to make funerals more affordable.
A cardboard coffin being painted for use by Tender Funerals. Photo: James Coleman.
Her research initially brought her to water cremation, where the body is dissolved using nothing but water, alkaline solution, heat and pressure in a process that can take as little as four hours.
“But the more I looked into it, the more I realised I didn’t feel that was a very sustainable option for Australia, as a drought-affected continent.”
However, the more she investigated terramation, the more she “loved it”.
“It harnesses the body’s natural energy. It’s very good environmentally, and it’s just the most natural process there is. Nobody wants to think about the way your body breaks down after you die, or the fiery cremation, but if you had to think about it, I think this is definitely the best way to go.”
There’s more, too.
“Some people say, ‘No, that’s it – I don’t need to see my person again, do what you want with the soil’. But then others who find it difficult to let go get an extra month of grief time with their person, where they can go and sit next to them and have a cup of coffee or read the newspaper with them, or just sit there and feel that warmth,” Ms Davidson says.
“There’s actually a really beautiful societal role there in healing from grief as well.”
So far, she’s found the ACT Government “sympathetic” to the idea and says public consensus is turning in its favour too.
“Rather than go, ‘Oh, that’s terrible’, the general public is starting to absolutely recognise the groundswell of interest in environmentally sustainable options.”
Human remains turned into mulch through ‘terramation’ by Seattle-based company Recompose. Photo: Recompose.
She says it will all come down to the cost, and as with Tender Funerals, she aims to make it as affordable as possible.
In the US, human composting costs between $5000 and $7000 ($7700 to $10,800 AUD), but Ms Davidson envisions a community collaboration with government, or a partnership with regenerative landcare groups (where they receive the remains if the family chooses).
“I’d be delighted to be out there running a government facility for them – I’d just prefer it to be done as a not-for-profit or as a community collaboration,” she says.
How far away is it from becoming an option?
“I think someone will be doing it in Australia within a year.”
