Georgia Is Now the 13th State to Legalize Natural Organic Reduction
Effective July 1, 2025, residents of the Peach State will have access to another option for disposition: natural organic reduction. Georgia governor Brian Kemp signed into law Senate Bill 241 on May 9 after both sides of the aisle showed overwhelming support for what the bill calls “organic human reduction.”
Georgia is the 13th state to legalize natural organic reduction, and the first since Maine’s NOR law was finalized in June 2024.
Toward a greener South
When it comes to expanding disposition options beyond flame cremation and traditional burial, Georgia has been one of the most progressive of the nine Southeastern states. Alkaline hydrolysis has been legal in Georgia since 2012; at the time, Florida was the only state in the region to offer AH, legalizing it in 2010. North Carolina, Alabama, and Tennessee followed suit in 2013, 2017, and 2018, respectively.
Georgia also boasts several green burial options. According to the Funeral Consumers Alliance of Georgia, there are “at least two exclusively natural burial grounds” in the state in addition to multiple hybrid cemeteries where green or natural burial sections exist alongside those reserved for traditional burials. One of those two operations has received certification from the Green Burial Council — one of just a handful in the entire Southeast to be GBC certified.
Breaking new ground
When it comes to NOR, however, Georgia stands alone as the only Southeastern state to offer this relatively new, but rapidly growing disposition method. While NOR is (perhaps expectedly) legal all along the West Coast and in the majority of the Northeastern states, none of the other 12 states offering NOR are easily accessible to Southerners, at least from a geographic standpoint, as the above graphic from our friends at Return Home illustrates. Also evident from this graphic is that none of the other eight states in the region have even introduced NOR legislation.
This doesn’t mean, however, that Southerners who would like to be transformed into soil have to wait for Georgia’s deathcare community to set up NOR operations. Auburn, Washington’s Return Home and other established NOR providers, including Washington-based Recompose, often open their doors to out-of-state families who pay to transport their loved ones to their West Coast facilities.
The founders of both Return Home and Recompose voiced support for Georgia’s new law, offering statements to Atlanta News First.
“Recompose is thrilled by the passage of the human composting bill in Georgia. […] We are proud to see the movement continue to grow so beautifully,” said Recompose founder/CEO Katrina Spade.
Return Home founder/CEO Micah Truman also “applauded the state’s legislative effort, saying the movement is about connection,” Atlanta News First reported. “I think we’re like salmon,” Truman said. “We want to go home.”
