Human composting

That's what we are trying to do, find a way to compost bodies that can be culturally accepted here in France.

Terramation draws inspiration from nature.

The body is placed into a shallow grave alongside organic material.

This creates an oxygen-rich environment for bacteria to thrive and naturally convert the body into compost, nourishing the soil along the way.

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook.

A so-called human composting bill will become legal in New South Wales under an Australian first law.

This is happening.

I didn't think it was a thing.

The good old-fashioned pub test.

It's been a while since we've been down the Jonesy Mandarams.

Human composting.

What about you? Does this pass the pub test? Yeah, I don't know.

welcome to today's episode of this green earth a weekly talk show about the natural world and our impacts on it i'm claire wiley and today we have none other than the one and only geo rutherford otherwise known as geodesaurus today she breaks down her 2026 edition of spooky lakes Then we hear from filmmakers J.J. Gerber and Clementine Briand about their new film, The Life We Leave.

We talk about a new and perhaps more Earth-friendly way to approach a human's final act with human composting.

That's all now on This Green Earth.

Don't you go anywhere.

And welcome back to This Green Earth.

I'm Claire Wiley, and joining me now are filmmakers JJ Gerber and Clementine Briand.

And they are here to discuss their film, The Life We Leave, which delves into the sensitive topic of death through a very unique lens, and that is human composting.

So welcome to This Green Earth.

Very much so.

So Terramation as a technology very much emerged in America and was first legalized in Seattle with the company Recompose, although that's only one of many companies that now offer this service.

But also, you know, other technologies like alkaline hydrolysis, which have also become popular in America and particularly we've seen in Europe.

Places like Germany and the UK favour natural burial grounds.

Perhaps today we should call it Death Matters.

We're talking about what you do with your body after you die or what your loved ones do with it.

Terramation, the idea of effectively composting a body, has just been legalised in New South Wales last week.

And I...

I'm Claire Wiley, and joining me now are filmmakers JJ Gerber and Clementine Briand.

And they are here to discuss their film, The Life We Leave, which delves into the sensitive topic of death through a very unique lens, and that is human composting.

So welcome to This Green Earth.

Thanks for having us.

This is your directorial debut.

Let's talk about how you learned about this topic.

What was it that brought you into this world of human composting?

Yeah, so I now live in Seattle, Washington, which is where human composting was first developed.

Yeah, beaches.

Well, the next step in that, human composting, also called soil transformation.

And so there is a whole new industry, Michael, which I'm sure you're familiar with.

popping up for this type of transformation where they're taking the actual human body and making it into a soil additive.

So we're treating it sort of like a cremation and, you know, plot, even though it'll be spreading around our, our trees.

Yeah.

And I was reading up on it and that's, it's called natural organic reduction, which is, Quite the euphemism if you talk about human composting.

But the theory being that the family gets that portion that they want and then can use it in a home garden, can use it to plant, say, maybe a commemorative tree for that person.

Anyway, our first story was one, is...

Human composting.

Yes.

Human

Excuse me.

Yes.

About the ability to when you die to elect to be buried via human composting by just.

So the process works.

And then for, uh, a film that's not in distribution that people may not know about, but I think will know about after they see it, it's a documentary called The Life We Leave.

Uh, have any of you heard of terramation?

No.

Anybody know human composting?

That's what-

Oh

... that's what terramation is.

Uh, it's a story about a guy who had a business idea out in Washington State, 'cause he saw a YouTube video about what they did with animals, and then he thought, "Well, why not do this with people?" So he, uh, got the funding, started up his business, suffered, was really, it was really difficult.