First legally composted human remains spread at burial preserve

FLORENCE, Colo. — A ceremony at the Colorado Burial Preserve laid out the remains of the first person to be legally composted in the state.

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In May 2021, Colorado became the second state to allow for human composting, wherein a body is placed in a container with organic material so it will break down naturally, WUSA reported at the time. The law does not allow the soil that is created to be sold or used to grow food for human consumption.

Joey Poisson became the first person in Colorado to undergo the composting process, and his family donated Poisson’s remains to help restore the Colorado Burial Preserve, KDVR reported.

Dozens of people gathered for the ceremony, which was scheduled to coincide with the spring solstice. The ceremony featured a number of rituals honoring Japanese and Native American traditions, KDVR reported.

The Natural Funeral performed the composting for Poisson, and explains the process on its website: The body is placed in a container with organic material and left until soil remains. The process for Poisson took six months, WUSA reported.

“I think this is the first time anything quite like this has happened — certainly in Colorado, maybe anywhere,” Seth Viddal, who runs The Natural Funeral, told WUSA. “They were laid in as a beloved and they will lay out as a living soil gift back to this preserve. It will nourish the land that’s here. It will be a foundation for the seeds that we’re mixing into the soil today. It’ll be the foundation of life here forever.”

“We’re here to reverentially honor the trailblazing choice that this Colorado family has made to be the first to return their loved one’s body to the earth by way of body composting,” Ben Martin with The Natural Funeral told WUSA. “We’re going to mix in it the promise of new life.”

Human composting is also legal in Washington, which was the first to legalize the practice in 2019, and Oregon, which legalized it in June.

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