This petition is a call to Governor Ron DeSantis to legalize human composting in Florida. Human composting (also known as the reduction of human remains) has recently been legalized in five other states: California, Washington, Oregon, Vermont, and Colorado. It is a more environmentally friendly and sustainable deathcare practice that can aid in land conservation and carbon sequestration, as well as overall has less emissions than current popular deathcare practices. Bodies are placed in sealed containers with biological material and left for 30 days to decompose. Once the time is up the containers are opened and what is left is small bone fragments and any medical devices that were in the body, everything else has now been turned into soil. The soil can then be taken and given to family members or donated to land conservation areas. 

The most popular deathcare practices in America are burial and cremation. It is under-studied and not largely known by the general public but both options have alarming impacts on the environment ranging from groundwater contamination to large emissions of carbon dioxide. Cremation emits mercury and other heavy metals into the atmosphere during the process, as well as large amounts of carbon dioxide. Traditional burial uses a vast amount of our resources every year, the average amount of wood used to build coffins is equal to 4 million acres of forest and is enough wood to build 4.5 million homes. Traditional burial practices also can lead to groundwater contamination through the seepage of biological material from cemeteries. Overall the two options leave much to be desired in terms of environmental sustainability. 

Human composting not only uses less resources, but creates less emissions as well. It is also cheaper than both traditional burial and cremation with services costing around $4,000-$5,500. Human composting is a viable option when looking towards a more sustainable future in the field of deathcare. In order to realize this shift to sustainable deathcare practices, we need states to actually legalize human composting, including Florida. This is a call to Governor DeSantis to look towards the future, even in topics that are taboo to talk about such as our funerary practices, and make a pathway for more sustainable options. Please sign to legalize human composting in Florida, our funerary future is at stake.