Elkridge funerary composter plans to spread excess soil on Eastern Shore site

A funerary business that transforms human remains into compost as an alternative to burial and cremation says it’s buying land on the Eastern Shore, where the loamy byproduct will be used to cultivate a forest of native trees.

Three months after opening its first mid-Atlantic facility in Elkridge, Seattle-based Earth Funeral was granted a zoning exception Aug. 13 by Worcester County that allows spreading of the unique soil as a permitted agricultural use of the rural Snow Hill site — though state law prohibits such compost being used to grow food for humans or livestock.

“We wanted to find land that would be ideal for conservation work — not available to the public and focused on improving soil health and planting native trees,” Earth Funeral CEO Tom Harries said in a statement.

While the company says its plan is safe for the environment, at least one neighbor and a Worcester County commissioner raised doubts about the plans, questioning the use of agricultural land and whether composting desecrates human remains.

Harries told The Banner in May that he founded his death care operation in 2020 with the question: “How can I become a tree?”

Since then, Earth Funeral has opened facilities in Seattle, Las Vegas and now Elkridge, which has 50 decomposition vessels and eventually will expand to 126, the company said.

Maryland is one of 14 states to have legalized the process known as natural organic reduction, having passed the Green Death Care Options Act in 2024.

Earth Funeral has been on the lookout for a rural Maryland site to use human compost to grow trees. After scouring the Eastern Shore, the company made an offer on a remote 14.5-acre tract outside Snow Hill.

The company said it picked the site because it offers a perfect mix of high ground, permeable soil, limited runoff, and no wetlands. The farmland had been on the market since last April for $285,000. The sale price was undisclosed.

How does one become tree food?

For about $5,000, Earth Funeral places the dearly departed into a 4-by-8-foot stainless steel vessel with wood chips and wildflowers. The idea, the company says, is to mimic what natural microbes do on the forest floor, breaking down remains — and no formaldehyde or chemicals are needed.

After 30 to 60 days, a body is transformed into 250 to 300 pounds of nutrient-rich compost. The decedent’s family may then bring home as much or as little of the resulting soil as they want.

While most families take one to five small cardboard urns of soil, “some families will show up with, like, a bucket brigade-type situation — they’ll put it all in 5-gallon buckets and then take them home,” Barrett Kruger, Earth Funeral’s senior compost engineer, told the Worcester County Board of Zoning Appeals.

The unclaimed product is spread at the conservation site.

Twice a year, soil would be trucked in sealed containers from Elkridge and tilled into the land at a rate of one 1 to 2 acres a year.

Under the terms of its zoning approval, Earth Funeral agreed to plant native trees under the guidance of a professional forester and a U.S. Department of Agriculture nutrient management plan.

It also agreed not to place any composted remains beyond a 50-foot perimeter buffer and to grow cover crops on sections of the property awaiting saplings. It could take up to 15 years to fill the parcel with trees.

Earth Funeral says it plans to own the Scotty Road property in perpetuity. It will not be considered a cemetery and won’t be open for public visitation, according to Hugh Cropper, the land-use attorney who represented Earth Funeral before the zoning board.

Cropper argued that the odorless compost would be no worse than spreading chicken manure or sewage effluent as fertilizer, both of which are legal for farmers.

“It’s an alternative to a giant casket, a vault, a headstone,” Cropper told the zoning board. “This way, you naturally go back into soil, you nourish the trees, the trees pick up the nutrients, and you’re there forever. Very low impact.”

Several neighbors expressed concerns at the hearing. One was 92-year-old Roger Richardson, a former Maryland secretary of agriculture who lives and farms land nearby.

Arguing that Worcester County is obligated to conserve farmland, he said spreading natural organic remains on the property forever prevents the land from legally being used for agriculture.

“I didn’t particularly like spreading chicken manure and God knows I’m not gonna spread people,” he told the zoning board.

Opponents also voiced concern about runoff. The site is very close to the Pocomoke River and two of its tributaries.

But minimal amounts of compost are not likely to create environmental problems, said Taylor Swanson, executive director of the Berlin-based Assateague Coastal Trust.

At worst, he said excess nutrients from this soil may find their way into the watershed if not adequately tilled or secured by cover crops.

“I don’t see any issue with this. I think it’s a great program,” Swanson added. “You remember your loved one with a plant that then outlasts you and your kids. Truly, what a wonderful way to be remembered, to go back to being part of the landscape and something that people can enjoy.”

Swanson did express some concern about heavy metals or microplastics in human remains possibly leaching into the watershed. Earth Funeral says that it tests the compost for pathogens, metals and harmful bacteria.

Worcester County’s zoning decision is subject to appeal in Circuit Court, but only for aggrieved parties who live nearby or stand to suffer financially. A 30-day appeal window will open after the case is finalized Sept. 10, County Planning Director Jennifer Keener said.

State law also says the Worcester County Board of Commissioners, as an elected body, may file its own appeal, which is a possibility, according to County Commissioner Joe Mitrecic, who represents the Ocean City district.

He said he’s not a fan of either the composting or its planned destination.

“Not that I am super religious or anything, but it seems to me that it’s desecration of a human body, whether somebody volunteers to have it done to them or not,” he said. “If they want to do this up in Howard County, then perhaps they should keep it up in Howard County. I don’t think Worcester County’s the right place to be spreading this stuff.”