It’s been 18 months since New Jersey Assemblyman Herb Conaway, Jr. introduced Bill A4085, which would legalize the process of natural organic reduction (NOR) in his state. During that time, Conaway, who is now a U.S. Representative, waited patiently as his bill traveled through four committees, sailed through both chambers of legislature, and sat on the desk of Gov. Phil Murphy for three full months.
On September 11, 2025, Murphy finally added his signature to the document, officially making New Jersey the 14th state to legalize natural organic reduction and “controlled supervised decomposition of human remains.” According to the bill, the law should take effect on the “first day of the 10th month following enactment,” which would be July 1, 2026.
Wells and cemeteries
The State Board of Mortuary Science of New Jersey will oversee NOR facilities, practitioners, and operating rules and regulations. According to NorthJersey.com, NOR facilities will have to be “annually registered and be inspected and approved by the Department of Environmental Protection, with the process under personal supervision, direction, management and control of a person duly licensed as a practitioner of mortuary science or duly licensed as a funeral director.”
The act also specifies that facilities will have to be located at an “appropriate distance from drinking water wells” and “funeral directors will have to make sure people know a deceased person can still be placed in a cemetery even after the natural organic reduction.” These two provisions were added to the bill by the Department of Environmental Protection and the New Jersey Cemetery Board, respectively.
36 states to go
New Jersey is the second state to legalize NOR in 2025. Georgia’s NOR law was signed in May and went into effect on July 1. Since it was first approved in Washington in 2019, one to three states have approved legislation allowing this eco-friendly disposition method each year, including Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Oregon, and Vermont. NOR legislation is pending in 11 other states.
