Human composting becomes legal as garden-variety burial demand surges

New South Wales became Australia's first state to legalize natural organic reduction (NOR), a composting burial method, joining 14 US states and Sweden where the practice is already legal. NOR produces no environmental toxins, unlike cremation and traditional coffin burial, and the body decomposes naturally without embalming chemicals.

Natural organic reduction is now legal in multiple jurisdictions, but adoption rates and availability remain limited outside those areas.