Terramation

Green burial, or similarly natural burial, refers to the practice of burying an unembalmed body in a designated green burial cemetery. This process includes a simple casket or shroud. However, Terramation takes place in a closed vessel. Technically, it is not a type of burial because the body is never placed in the ground. The Terramation process takes about 60 days compared to green burial.

Alkaline hydrolysis, also called water cremation or aquamation. Alkaline hydrolysis produces ashes from the materials if the bones after the water process is complete. The process takes place in a pressurized vessel filled with water and salts, which returns a body into water that closely resembles the water in the womb of a mother. 

The process is called Terramation. Terramation transforms human remains into life-giving soil using only alfalfa, straw, and sawdust in about 60 days. It is also sometimes called human composting, recomposting, recomposition, and natural organic reduction or NOR for short. 

Yes. As of May 2020, Terramation is legal in Washington State. We partner with Return Home to provide Terramation Services. Return Home is the only Terramation facility that provides in-person laying in services and the ability to visit your loved one throughout the Terramation process.

There are bills aimed at legalizing Terramation or human composting currently in California, Colorado, Oregon, and elsewhere. Contact us to learn more about our Terramation shipping package.

Yes. Mild temperatures of 131° Fahrenheit are used, and the temperature remains around 131° F for several days.

Yes, you have the option of planning ahead now for your self or a loved one through a preneed funeral arrangement.

A form of natural organic reduction has been practiced for decades by farmers as a way of recycling livestock back to the earth. The safety of this practice has been well documented by many different research articles.

Everything – including bones and teeth – transforms.  At the end of natural organic reduction, all that remains is soft, beautiful soil.

During the NOR process, pharmaceuticals, and chemotherapy drugs, are reduced to safe levels as they are decomposed by microorganisms.

These items are recycled when possible.

No. NOR disqualifies a body from undergoing human composting for Ebola, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, and tuberculosis. Patients who have received radiation seed implants within 30 days of death are also not eligible for NOR in most cases.

In Washington State, it must be performed by a licensed operator in a licensed facility. We will ship your loved one with NOR. Contact us today to learn more.

No. For the NOR process to work properly, the body must be is placed without a shroud.