Natural Organic Reduction is now legal in Minnesota. . . Return Home to expand to the state

July 9, 2025/Products, Regulations/

As of July 1, 2025, Natural Organic Reduction, or Terramation as some call it, became a legal form of disposition in the state of Minnesota. According to information that I believe reliable, Minnesota was the 11th state to pass legislation permitting such and the 13th state to activate the process. The process of Natural Organic Reduction (NOR) or Terramation is labeled by many as “human composting”.

On the same day that NOR was legal in Minnesota, Washington state provider of such services Return Home issued this press release stating that they will be expanding to Minnesota. Return Home, you can access their website here, also announced that they will open a new facility in Minnesota for the process and also made this statement in their press release, “The expansion marks a significant step forward in Return Home’s mission to bring gentle, sustainable death care to communities across the country. With Minnesota’s progressive values, cultural richness, and long-standing environmental leadership, the state is a natural fit for terramation—a process that gently transforms human remains into soil.”

Up until now and until a facility is built in Minnesota, Minnesotans who have wanted to have NOR/Terramation as their method of human disposition have had to work with local funeral homes and have their remains shipped to the state of Washington to implement the process. One Minnesota funeral provider, Mueller Mortuary, has implemented a division for what they term “Green Burial Services and Options” which includes “Composting” as one of the options.

That division is called “Interra Green Burial by Mueller Mortuary” and their website can be accessed by clicking here.

Related Information — Here is a recent notice from the Minnesota Funeral Director’s Association concerning the implementation of NOR as an alternative human disposition method.

Related Information — Here is a video news story and print article from NBC Palm Springs (CA) about the Minnesota law and Return Home.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take: According to the Cremation Association of North America, the cremation rate in Minnesota during the calendar year 2022 was 72.7% compared to a national average for that year of 59%. According to the Minnesota Department of Health, the cremation rate in Minnesota in 1982 was 7.6% and in 1961 — 64 years ago — it was 1.8%.

I give you those statistics to show you how fast things can change. I live in Minnesota and I was a practicing funeral director during the swift percentage run-up on cremation over the past 40 years. Minnesotans are “open minded” and willing to try new things. . . . That may be one reason that Return Home decided to invest in their 2nd facility in the state.

As a funeral director, I can remember traditional casketed funeral families decision making processes on selecting cremation. One of the factors in the process of going to a high percentage cremation rate was that once a family chose cremation as the human disposition for the first member of the family unit, there was generally no going back to traditional casketed burials for the family with future deaths.

I wonder if that might be the same situation with those that opt in for NOR?

Finally — It was Katrina Spade, who you can learn about here, who pioneered the process and business of Natural Organic Reduction. She is involved with her own NOR business/funeral home in the state of Washington. I’ve told people this before and I still believe that it could be true. The process of “human composting” seems to resonate with people I talk to.

Cremation choice went from 1.8% of the populace in Minnesota in 1961 to 70% roughly 60 years later. Could the same happen with NOR over the next century? If it does and Death Care disposition decisions are changed that drastically, one hundred years from now when people read about the most influential people in the world during the 21st Century, Katrina Spade could well be in that discussion.

Here is the Recompose website.

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