Human composting, tree burial: How Aussies are changing funerals

Pyramids, mausoleums, cenotaphs, headstones - human beings have been experimenting with ways to commemorate their dead loved ones since before the dawn of history.

Now, a growing group of advocates are pushing for an option that’s both new and perhaps, in some ways, the oldest of all.

Sydney MP Alex Greenwich introduced a bill to NSW parliament last week calling for the legalisation of “natural organic reduction”, also known as human composting.

In short, human cadavers become dirt.

Not just any dirt of course - Greenwich says the “controlled process” involved in the procedure accelerates natural decomposition to result in “around 110 kilograms of nutrient rich safe compost”.

Advocates like Earthly Legacy say the process prevents one tonne of carbon emissions per body.

The compost could then hypothetically be donated to environmental regeneration projects, or used to plant a memorial tree or garden.

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And as well as being environmentally friendly - it’s relatively cheap.

Totting up costs when it comes to saying farewell to a loved one can feel vulgar, but it’s a stark reality that funeral and burial costs are increasing around the country.

The government’s MoneySmart website says families can expect to fork out up to about $20,000, with the cost varying, sometimes sharply upward, depending on things like cemetery fees and other funeral options.

Human composting is not yet legal in any Australian jurisdiction, but is available to people in parts of the US and Europe.

Australian Cemeteries and Crematoria Association chief executive Ben Kelly said the association supported “exploring” the idea of human composting - but said laws governing the process had to be consistent nationally.

“This is an emerging practice that deserves careful consideration, not a knee-jerk reaction,” Kelly said.

“Any future introduction should be underpinned by clear legislation, strong consumer protections and consistent regulatory frameworks across all Australian states and territories.”

Kelly said ACCA and Funerals Australia were willing to work with governments to shape “practical, evidence-based regulation”.

“Our priority is ensuring that any new end-of-life option is introduced safely, ethically and with the confidence of both industry and the community,” he said.

A tree of life?

Growing calls for human composting isn’t the only sign Australia’s funeral cultures are changing, as Living Legacy Forest founder Warren Roberts knows all too well.

Living Legacy Forest offers people the chance to have their cremated ashes mixed with the soil to nourish a long-lasting tree that receives perpetual care in a protected natural landscape.

The trees receive a plaque and can even be designated a family memorial, with successive generations continuing to add their ashes as well.

Roberts was inspired to start the business after a friend lost their life, plunging him into grief - too frozen by loss to even shed tears.

“Grief is like playing one note, over and over,” he told nine.com.au.

And then, one day while walking in the bush, he said, something changed.

The trees and flowers “gave me the notes back”, he said.

“I cried for the first time then, but I felt more alive than I ever had.”

Epiphany aside, Roberts admitted “everybody thought I was mad” when he launched the business, which now has sites in multiple states around Australia.

But that was then.

“In the last few years, we’ve planted over 3000 trees,” he said.

“It’s really taken off.”

Roberts said there was a semi-spiritual angle to it, noting that in Q&A sessions he’d conducted with rooms full of people, 90 per cent said they were in favour of “becoming” a tree.

“Fundamentally, it’s about changing the way we are remembered,” he said.

“Funerals are the only thing that hasn’t changed since the Dark Ages.”

He said he had noticed a change in how people related to memorials and legacy, with a link to growing environmental awareness, as people sought to address or restore their relationship to the natural world.

“People don’t want to be remembered as a grave,” he said.

“With a grave, you remember absence, death, loss. Trying to remember somebody’s life by a grave is like trying to remember a story by the full stop at the end.”

He’s not knocking cemeteries - Roberts said they were “beautiful places”, and that he had relatives and loved ones who had been interred.

But he said there was a “profound change” under way.

A memorial tree is cheaper than a traditional funeral, with Roberts estimating an upper-level cost of perhaps half the average funeral and burial.

Living Legacy Forest has sites in or around Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, and Adelaide, with Brisbane the next stop.

The forests vary depending on the site and the partnerships that go into it.

The Adelaide site is a flower garden, while Perth’s is filled with native species with the aim to make the forest a habitable hub for the endangered mainland quokka.

The Sydney hub, a secluded grove in the Blue Mountains, is dedicated to the native Wollemi pine, while in Melbourne, 20 “of the most beautiful” species of tree make for a colourful resting place, with cherry blossoms and jacarandas blooming during the year.

Roberts is confident demand for a different way to say goodbye will keep growing.

As for human composting, he said Living Legacy Forest would provide that option in jurisdictions where it becomes legal from 2030 onward, but he’s unsure why people would opt for an industrialised option.

“Mother Nature has been composting for free forever,” he said.

“When human bodies have biodegraded naturally on this earth for thousands of years, it raises the question of why we would need energy-intensive machinery to replicate a process nature already does.”