FROM ASHES TO SOIL: NEW JERSEY EMBRACES HUMAN COMPOSTING

New Jersey has taken a bold step in rethinking life’s final chapter. Instead of fire and ashes, the Garden State now offers earth and soil.

The newly passed law legalizes human composting—formally known as natural organic reduction—transforming a body into fertile soil in about 45 days. Families can use it to grow a tree, scatter it like ashes, or keep it for their garden.

Traditional burials consume land and resources, while cremation burns through fossil fuels in hours. Composting, by contrast, is slower but greener: a return to the earth, quite literally.

With this move, New Jersey becomes the 14th state to adopt the practice, giving residents a local option instead of shipping loved ones out of state. Funeral homes are expected to offer the service within 10 months.

For some, it’s a comforting cycle of life; for others, the thought of replacing ashes with soil may feel unsettling. Would you choose ashes, or soil?