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What is terramation?
He aha a terramation?
Terramation (also known as natural organic reduction or human composting) is a process that converts human remains into soil through natural biological decomposition.
The process involves placing the deceased person's body tūpāpaku into a container with wood chips, straw, and other organic materials. This container is then sealed, creating an optimal environment for natural decomposition to occur. Over a period of several weeks, microorganisms that are naturally present in the human body break down the tissues and organs, including bones, leaving behind a nutrient-rich soil. The heat generated through this process destroys most pathogens rendering the soil safe for exposure to the living. This process takes approximately 60 days and produces around one cubic metre of soil. In the states where this is practiced the soil may be returned to the family, or may be donated to a native forest regeneration programme.
There are certain conditions that live in the soil, for example; tuberculosis and prion-based diseases like bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) [mad cow disease], Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD), etc. People with these conditions may not be approved for natural organic reduction.
As an environmentally supportive alternative to burial or cremation, natural organic reduction takes nothing from the earth, does not use land space, does not introduce any chemicals or foreign substances to the land and produces fewer greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon is sequestered in the soil which contributes to plant growth, rather than being released into the atmosphere as CO2. Furthermore, because this process does not require fossil fuels or caskets, the carbon footprint from the production of those resources is negated.
For many, this process is viewed as a more natural and dignified end-of-life process, as the body is returned to the earth in a way that nourishes the soil and supports growth, thus completing the cycle of life - kua hua te marama.
The terramation process
Disclaimer:
The links below are public domain and are there is no legal or financial connection to Terramation Aotearoa. Any opinions, products, or services offered by these organizations are separate and independent from Terramation Aotearoa, and are included for the purposes of information and demonstration of natural organic reduction practices internationally.
Take a virtual visit to Return Home, the largest Terramation (human composting) facility in the world.
Caitlin Doughty, Katrina Spade and the rest of the team at Recompose take you through the process of terramation.
Current Aotearoa statistics
Traditional practices of cremation and burial harm the environment with pollution consisting of fossil fuels, embalming chemicals, carbon dioxide and toxic gas emissions.
38,052 deaths
in Aotearoa
New Zealand in 2022, 70% were cremations.
26,600 cremations, 12,000 burials
Statistics New Zealand (stats.govt.nz)
approx
3,591,000 litres of fuel
Each cremation uses an average 135 litres of fossil fuel or gas equivalent. In New Zealand this amounts to burning 3,591,000 litres of fossil fuel or gas equivalent annually, and this is the main contributor to CO2 emissions in cremations
approx
6,437,200 kg of CO2
is released into the atmosphere every year in NZ from traditional cremations, most of which comes from the burning of fuel
(approx 242kg per cremation)
The environmental toll of cremating the dead | National Geographic
500 burials per hectare
is the average land needed for traditional burials. In NZ 12,000 burials annually equates to 24 hectares of denuded land used every year
(converted from 1250 per acre)
https://www.greenburialnaturally.org/blog/2016/10/26/this-is-a-placeholder-first-blog-entry
Land use
Many cemeteries and urupā in New Zealand have or are reaching capacity, and more land is being sought for development of new cemeteries at a cost of millions of dollars
New Zealand Law Commission: IP34 The Legal Framework for Burial and Cremation in New Zealand
CO2 emissions in perpetuity
Traditional burials generate around 39kg of CO2, plus the release of CO2 from fossil fuels burnt during maintenance in perpetuity
Environmental impacts of funerals: burial vs cremation - Bare
Terramation and the grieving process
- tukanga pouri
Terramation not only has a significant positive environmental impact, it allows an opportunity for redefining the ways to celebrate a person's life
Time to process loss
wā hei tukatuka i te ngaromanga
A traditional funeral service usually allows around three or four days from the time of death to the final farewell. This time can be a whirlwind of decision making and time pressures and does not always allow sufficient time for families to process their loss. During the 60 days of the terramation process friends and whanau may visit with the terramation vessel as often as they wish to facilitate their mourning.
Coming home
hoki mai ki te kāinga
Families who have made use of the terramation process talk about the comfort of receiving the soil at the end of the process as a tangible link to the person, and describe it as their family member 'coming home'.
For those who would like to be buried on their property but cannot; this provides a legal option to have their soil returned to their land - tūpāpaku e hoki ana ki te whenua.
Become a forest
noho hei ngahere
The use of the soil to regenerate life provides a positive outcome from the person's death. If the soil is not taken home it may be donated to a native forest regeneration or conservation project where the person will continue to do good, even after death. In this way the person will live on, 'not just as a tree, but as a forest'.