California, known for its progressive and environmentally conscious stance, has emerged as a pioneer in offering eco-friendly funeral options that align with the growing concerns of its residents. With a rising interest in sustainable practices and a desire to reduce environmental impact, Californians are exploring unique alternatives to traditional funeral rites, including human composting and celestial burials.
In a recent survey conducted by the National Funeral Directors Association, a staggering 60.5% of respondents expressed a keen interest in exploring green funeral options, primarily driven by the potential environmental benefits they offer.
This growing trend reflects a significant shift in cultural and religious attitudes toward end-of-life rituals, as more individuals seek to align their final journey with their values and leave a positive impact on the planet.
An alternative to traditional burial and cremation coming to California in 2027 is natural organic reduction, otherwise known as human composting. Natural organic reduction is already legal in Washington, Colorado, Oregon, and Vermont.
Human composting involves remains naturally decomposing over a 30- to 45-day period after the body is placed in a steel vessel and covered with biodegradable materials.
Recompose, which offers a natural organic reduction in the state of Washington, said through its process it uses 87% less energy than traditional burial or cremation — saving one metric ton of carbon from entering the environment, which is equivalent to the CO2 emissions of driving 2,421 miles (3896.2 kilometers).
Alkaline hydrolysis, also known as water cremation, is a natural method of decomposition that uses water to cremate the body.
This process uses water, alkaline chemicals, heat, and sometimes pressure and agitation to accelerate natural decomposition, according to the Cremation Assn. of North America. The result is bone fragments, and a liquid called effluent. Effluent is sterile, meaning no DNA or tissue remains, and the fluid can be released down a drain.
California legalized water cremation in 2017, but it became more widely known when Desmond Tutu, the anti-apartheid leader and South African Anglican archbishop emeritus who died in December 2021, requested it.
Several funeral homes in Los Angeles County offer the service, including Commerce-based Pisces. Christopher Taktak, Pisces' chief executive, said a solution that is mostly warm water takes about four hours to leave behind bone material that people will inter or take home.
Taktak said his company's process doesn't release harmful emissions and uses 90% less energy than flame cremation.
Across the state, funeral homes and cemeteries offer memorial trees where cremains are mixed with the soil used to grow a tree on the cemetery grounds.
People may choose to be a permanent part of a tree's life in Los Angeles' Hollywood Forever's Ancestral Forest Project. Hollywood Forever allows cremains to be planted with the roots of a new tree or next to an existing tree of choice. With its Heritage Program, the cremated remains are placed in a space next to an existing mature tree (cypress sentinels, California fan palms, redwoods, and olive trees).
In 52 acres of the cemetery's ancestral forest, the remains can be planted with live oak, cypress, jacaranda, canary pine, palm, or ginkgo trees.
Not all of us can become astronauts in this life, but your cremains can. Human ashes cannot be scattered in space, though; the remains must be in a container.
Celestis, a Texas-based company, first launched human ashes into space in 1997.
One option the company offers is the "Earth rise service," which launches flight capsules containing cremated remains and DNA samples to outer space — about 62 miles above Earth — for $2,995. The cremains then returns to Earth. The company's priciest offering, with a starting cost of $12,995, is the "voyager service," in which a portion of a person's remains board a commercial spacecraft, headed to space for other purposes such as research, and the remains do not return.
Honoring a surfer or an avid boater could mean scattering their ashes at sea. There's also the option of a full-body burial or giving back to the ocean ecosystem by using cremains to make a reef ball.
Los Angeles Yacht Charter offers various sea vessels for scattering ashes at least three nautical miles off the coast.
Burial at Sea Southern California Coast offers its services across the state. The burials are done with biodegradable caskets that break down in the ocean within three to six months. The cost of this service depends on the number of people viewing the service and where the boat is departing from.
Donating body to science means you are playing a crucial role in a researcher's work to improve their understanding of diseases, the development of treatment and human anatomy.
If you decide to donate your body to a specific university in California, you're also supporting the education of medical students.
The University of California schools each have specific donation programs.
Any adult 18 years or older can register with a university's program. Anyone can donate their body except for people with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, hepatitis B or C, HIV, and active tuberculosis.
Once the body is accepted and studied, the remains are cremated and scattered at sea.
Keeping a loved one close doesn't have to be limited to an urn. Instead, their cremains can be turned into a family heirloom: a memorial diamond.
This type of diamond is artificially created with the carbon extracted from cremains.
Los Angeles-based Heart in Diamond turns cremation ashes or human or pet hair into a diamond.
The company's process extracts carbon from cremated ashes by applying high pressure and high temperature. Then it places a tiny diamond "seed" and the pure carbon into a growth chamber to form the diamond. The rough diamond is then cut and polished to your specifications.
Heart in Diamond's operation manager Anastasia Formenti said the company offers five colors, but the exact shade will be unique to a person's chemical makeup.
"It's kind of a (surprise) in a way, that you're still going to receive a blue diamond, but whether it's going to be [the color] of the heart of the ocean, like in 'Titanic' or it's going to be a lighter blue, that is up to the process itself," Formenti said.
The memorial diamond could be used for a ring or a necklace, for example. Heart in Diamond offers the jewelry setting for rings, earrings, and pendants at an additional cost.
