Natural organic reduction is coming to New Jersey, providing what one company offering the equipment for the process called “an attractive option as more people become conscious of the environmental impact of traditional funeral practices.”
But, as we approach Earth Day on April 22, 2026, it’s important to ask how environmentally friendly NOR is and will it replace any of the three main forms of disposition in the state.
There is a lack of empirical studies on the environmental impact of NOR, in part because the process is so new that long-range studies are not yet completed. But evidence about NOR, how it is conducted and the resulting product of the process has been analyzed. Most advocates are saying it is a better environmental option than burial, entombment or cremation.
Natural organic reduction is the process of controlled supervised decomposition of a human body resulting in the conversion of human remains into a soil-like product. New Jersey legalized the process in 2025, and it is scheduled to become available to consumers in July 2026.
Earth Funeral, an NOR company that has been particularly active in advertising to New Jersey families and funeral directors in advance of the process becoming available, made a comparison of natural organic reduction and cremation. Earth Funeral’s NOR process uses renewable electric to power its equipment. It produces no net CO2 emissions and uses 40 gallons of water, roughly the same amount as a standard bath.
Cremation, however, produces 535 pounds of CO2 emissions and releases other harmful gases and elements into the environment.
But what of that soil-like product created by NOR? The amount can seem unwieldy, with more than 200 pounds being produced, as opposed to a relatively small urn for cremated remains. There are also restrictions on who can be considered for NOR. In several states, people with infectious diseases, radiological devices and other conditions are barred from using NOR over concerns about possible contaminants in the soil-like product.
Moreover, there are concerns about where the product from NOR can be placed. The Green Burial Council, which advocates for green burials as the most environmentally friendly form of disposition, said considerations must be made concerning sensitive land.
Human compost “may easily upset a fragile system or introduce an imbalance of nutrients, achieving precisely the opposite of the goal,” the Green Burial Council concluded. “It’s important to have thought through the research concerning what we know about forest restoration.”
Most states, including New Jersey, are putting restrictions on the use of the soil-like product and where it can be placed.
As with all forms of body treatment and disposition methods, NOR is not completely carbon neutral. Even if the electricity used is renewable, there are environmental costs to generating it and transporting it. There is also an environmental impact to building the equipment, called vessels, used to effect the accelerated decomposition of a body. In addition, decedents must be transported to the NOR facility and the resulting product must be transported once the process is completed.
Still, the evidence that exists shows that NOR is a more environmentally friendly process than several other forms of disposition, outside of green burial, which involves the placement of unembalmed bodies, without vaults or standard caskets, in cemeteries within natural settings.