Recompose Offers a Sustainable Alternative to the Death Care Industry

Katrina has been an entrepreneur and designer since 2002. She has more than 15 years of experience in project management, finance and architecture, with a focus on human-centered, ecological solutions.

While earning her Master of Architecture, Katrina invented a patent-pending system to transform the dead into soil. In 2014, she founded the 501(c)(3) Urban Death Project to bring attention to the problems of a toxic, disempowering funeral industry. In 2017, she founded Recompose, a public benefit corporation.

Today, she shares how her organization is improving the relationship people have with death and dying.

EW: How is your organization innovating around the end-of-life experience?

Recompose is a new model of deathcare that facilitates a deeper connection with nature and invites a more conscious relationship with death. At its heart is a patent-pending system that gently transforms bodies into soil.

We hope that, for some, this option will feel almost spiritual: an ecological, productive and beautiful thing to do with our physical bodies after we’ve died.

One of our core tenets is that each of us has the capacity to care for a loved one who has died. It’s a basic human act, and in the olden days, everyone participated. We also believe that caring for a loved one’s body can be incredibly empowering.

As part of the Recompose model, families are encouraged to participate in the care and preparation of the body alongside our staff.

What are your priorities in this work?

Right now, we’re finishing a pilot with researchers at Washington State University to demonstrate that recomposition is safe and sustainable.

We’re drafting a bill in Washington State that will make recomposition, the conversion of human remains into soil, a legal option for disposition. We are also in the early design stages of Recompose|SEATTLE, the first place in the world where people will be able to be recomposed.

One of our main priorities is getting to know funders who are heart-aligned and may want to invest in our work. It’s an exciting time!

If you could wave a magic wand, what would appear?

Oooh, I want a magic wand!

I’d order up fresh funeral laws for every state that expand deathcare options and scrub out all of the archaic junk we currently have to deal with.

And a big, lovely warehouse space for Recompose|SEATTLE.

And oodles of funding so that we can begin opening Recompose Centers all over the world and create a toolkit to help others do the same.

And some dill pickles, my favorite food.

Whom do you consider part of the “positive conspiracy” in your efforts to transform the consumer end-of-life experience?

So many groups are working on end-of-life issues. It’s just an awesome time to be doing this.

Some of my favorites are the death-with-dignity advocates, whom I consider to be doing some of the most challenging work in terms of cultural change.

Death doulas have been practicing much of what Recompose plans to offer in terms of ritual and end-of-life consciousness for decades. Academics like Tanya Marsh are helping consumers understand why the funeral industry is the way it is. Spoiler alert: It is not due to some centuries-old cultural tradition.

Finally, a shoutout to my sister, Julie Bernstein, in Portland. She is a physician assistant in geriatric medicine at OHSU. Her team is protecting older patients from some of the most common complications that can occur in hospital settings and making sure that end-of-life goals are always part of the conversation.

What advice would you give to other leaders interested in changing the end-of-life experience?

I’d say: Be bold!

If you have an idea that you are sure will positively affect even three percent of the population when it comes to their end-of-life experience, make it happen.

Death is such a personal thing, and it’s also universal. In my mind, that makes us all experts when it comes to the event.

There’s no wrong way to approach the end of life, as long as it’s framed with consciousness, compassion and empathy.

In your organization’s long-range planning, three to five years out, what does the end-of-life experience feel like to a consumer and their circle of caregivers?

For the dying person, we hope the opportunity to be recomposed will be a source of comfort, satisfaction and maybe even joy. It’s a chance to be productive one final time and give back to the earth that has sustained us throughout our lives.

For the circle of caregivers, we want to provide a sense of empowerment and a ritual that feels authentic.

Friends and family will also be able to take the soil that is created and use it to grow a tree or nourish a garden.