Composting of human bodies is now legal in California, making it the fifth state in the US to allow it.
Human composting won't become a burial option in the Golden State until at least 2027, though a bill was signed by the governor over the weekend.
In at least one state, the practice of human composting is already underway and attracting people from out of state.
In an interview with The Guardian, the founder and CEO of Seattle's Return Home funeral service said that he has had people bring the bodies of their loved ones from 12 different states to be composted.
Truman said in an interview that he could say goodbye to them in a way that felt good. That will matter to me.
Human composting is better for the environment than cremation, which emits about one metric ton of carbon per body burned. This was a key selling point for the assembly member who tried twice before to pass a human composting bill in California.
"With climate change and sea-level rise as very real threats to our environment, this is an alternative method of final disposition that won't contribute emissions into our atmosphere."
California is home to a "death-positive" activist and former Los Angeles funeral director who founded the Order of the Good Death organization in 2011.
Both the Order of the Good Death and other human composting advocates have noted that the practice also has the added benefit of costing the same or less than other options.
By contract, human composting costs between $5,000 and $7,000, and the process that will be allowed in California is to place bodies in steel boxes with wood chips, flowers, and other non-biodegradable materials for one to two months before the body breaks down into soil that is then given to the
Composting gives families a chance to return their loved ones to the Earth.
When we handle our dead in ways that can help, rather than harm, the planet, it sounds like a good death.
There will be a new burial option for California's dead.
The director died by suicide.
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