California sanctions all-new option for saving planet: human decompost

"Your final act is one of pollution," Tom Harries, co-founder and CEO of Earth Funeral, told Newsweek. "More steel is put into the ground each year than was used to build the Golden Gate Bridge... and each cremation is equivalent to a 600-mile car journey in terms of carbon dioxide."

Every year, more than 3.3 million people in America die, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). "We can't just keep putting bodies in the ground," said Harries.

Burial is expensive and bad for the environment, and cremation isn't much better. "There has been very little innovation in this space for decades. [But] the industry is changing just like any other," Harries said. "People want environmentally friendly options."

Thanks to recent advances in technology, new burial methods are starting to be developed.

You can now be turned into a tree in a biodegradable burial pod or decomposed by a steady flow of water, in what is known as an aqua cremation. Alternatively, you can be buried in a "mushroom death suit"— perhaps the most eco-friendly method of all.

Now, a new planet-friendly option has been made legal in California: human composting.

Signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday, the bill introduces new regulatory processes for "natural organic reduction" that will come into effect in 2027.

"Cremation and conventional burial both have a significant carbon footprint," Katrina Spade, founder and CEO of Recompose, told Newsweek. "One due to carbon release, the other due to the transport and manufacture of caskets and grave liners. When you choose human composting, you avoid the carbon footprint of both of those methods.

With human composting, we could save about a metric ton of carbon per person."