Human composting will become legal in New South Wales after MPs approved Australian-first legislation allowing specially designed facilities to begin operating from 2028.
The bill, introduced by independent Sydney MP Alex Greenwich, passed the state’s upper house on Wednesday. The process will officially be known as terramation, after the NSW Government rejected the term “natural organic reduction”.
Terramation involves placing a body in a vessel filled with organic material such as lucerne, hay and sawdust. The mixture is heated for several days, allowing the body and plant matter to decompose.
After at least a month, bones and medical implants are removed. The bones are ground down before being returned to the mixture, which then rests for several more weeks.
The resulting compost can be given to relatives to scatter around trees or donated to parks and landcare projects. Greenwich’s legislation stipulates that nobody can be composted against their wishes.
MPs back terramation as a matter of personal choice
During Wednesday’s debate, Labor MP Cameron Murphy, Greens MP Amanda Cohn and Libertarian MP John Ruddick said they would want to be composted after their deaths.
Nationals MP Sarah Mitchell said the reform would not suit everyone but argued that it should be available as a personal choice.
“We are conscious this won’t be something that everybody will be happy about, but on balance we can see that this is a matter of personal choice,” she said.
Liberal MP Susan Carter did not oppose the legislation but raised concerns about how the soil produced through terramation would be used.
“Life is a continuum and the respect we show for the human body is inextricably linked to the respect we show for the living,” she said. “Our bodies are valuable not because they contain nutrients … they are valuable because they are more than the sum of these nutrients.”
Terramation is legal in 14 US states and one part of Germany, according to the material presented during the debate. It is generally priced between cremation and burial.
Cremation rates in NSW have risen to 70 per cent in Sydney and 75 per cent in regional areas, amid limited burial space and increasing costs. Authorities will spend the next two years developing regulations before human composting begins.
Greenwich said terramation had undergone extensive scientific testing to establish that it was safe for people and the environment, and thanked MPs for supporting what he described as a historic reform.
