Natural organic reduction

Live On Minnesota is working to become the first provider of Natural Organic Reduction (NOR) in the state of Minnesota. Also known as “human composting,” NOR is the safe and peaceful transformation of the body into nutrient-rich compost after death.
South Minneapolis resident Erik Halaas wants to become garden compost himself one day. Through his social venture Live On Minnesota, he is exploring how this natural alternative to cremation and conventional burial can become viable in Minnesota.
Halaas has 10+ years of experience building partnerships to research, test, and apply new approaches to programming in public health and education. He uses the term “intrapreneur” to describe his role: that of a person exploring new opportunities inside longstanding institutions.

How it works
There aren’t many institutions older than funerary care. According to the Green Burial Council, coffin burial and cremation account for 94% of all funerals in the US. Both have significant negative impacts on the environment. Coffin burials account for 64,000 tons of steel, 1.6 million tons of concrete, and 4 million gallons of embalming fluid annually. Cremation has an annual carbon output equivalent to burning roughly 400 million pounds of coal.
Like all composting, NOR creates new life through death. Leaning into the principles of nature, NOR layers the body with organic material (wood chips, straw, alfalfa, wildflowers) in a reusable vessel, adds oxygen and movement to facilitate microbial activity, and breaks the body down into its natural and nutrient-rich elements. Inorganic materials like artificial joints are sifted and removed and the final product is ready to support new life. Once decomposition is complete, about a cubic yard of organic material can be returned to the family.

Taboo subject
In addition to bringing NOR to Minnesota, Halaas hopes to support a culture of open communication on the topics of death and dying. He said, “Even though there’s nothing as normal as death, it can create real challenges for families. I think we could all learn to live better if we deepened our understanding of death and its inevitabilities.”
Halaas added, “NOR provides a unique opportunity to process loss and grief. We typically rush through the preparations for memorial services and final disposition. Because this process is slow, usually around two months from start to finish, there’s just a lot more time to reflect.”

Disposition
Disposition, in end-of-life vocabulary, means the disposing of the body. All have to go somewhere when we die. Seven years ago, Halaas’ mother-in-law died and his family had their first close-in experience with death. At the time, NOR was in its infancy. Without plans for her burial, the family defaulted to cremation. He said, “She was an avid gardener and would have welcomed the chance to be returned to her garden. I wish we had had this option then.”
The NOR movement began in Washington state in 2014, when an architecture student named Katrina Spade started looking at different systems of disposition for a thesis project. She went on to create her own company, called Recompose, which has one of the few NOR facilities up and running in the country. Washington, Nevada, and Colorado are the only three states with operational NOR facilities to date, but that will likely start to change soon.
Halaas is working to make his business, Live on Minnesota, the state’s first NOR facility. He said, “I started the design of a vessel with students at the University of Minnesota last spring. My hope is to continue exploring that option. Opening a facility is a capital intensive process; the entry point is a hurdle. I have heard of other folks, both within and beyond the state of Minnesota, who have an interest in investing.”
In the meantime, he’s hopeful that people will start having more conversations around death and dying. He said, “Funeral costs are the third largest life expense on average for people living in the U.S. In Minnesota, the average cost for a full-service burial is over $9,000, and can easily cost far more. In states with NOR facilities, the cost is around $6,000. The average cost for direct cremation is around $3,000.”
Halaas concluded, “I don’t expect NOR to be the burial method that all Minnesotans choose, but it’s an option many may feel comfortable with. I‘m excited by the possibility of offering a more sustainable alternative.”
For more information on Natural Organic Reduction and the work of Erik Halaas and his team, visit www.liveonmn.com. Mueller Memorial, a funeral home with locations in St. Paul and White Bear Lake, offers NOR coordinating resources: www.muellermemorial.com/dust-to-dust.