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Return Home: Honoring Life's Journey Beyond with Brienna Smith
19 Plays2 years ago
In this episode of The Glam Reaper podcast, your host Jennifer sits down with Brienna Smith, the Chief Operating Officer of Return Home—a full-service green funeral home offering Terramation (human composting services). They dive into important topics that might sound unfamiliar but are essential for understanding the cycle of life.
Return Home was born with the idea of providing families with a kind, clear, and open way to take care of their loved ones after they pass away. It’s a unique and natural approach that keeps the circle of life going.
And while the concept of Terramation may sound strange, it's also a way to let a person's body become part of the Earth again naturally. No fancy chemicals, just nature doing its thing.
Ever wondered how long it takes for a body to return to the Earth? Brienna breaks it down for us. It's not something we think about every day, but understanding the process can help us appreciate the Earth's ways.
Methane and other gases are also on the agenda. You’ve probably only heard these terms in science class, but here, they're connected to the natural process of a body returning to the Earth. Brienna explains how these gases are involved in the cycle.
Tune in to this episode to learn about these down-to-earth topics on how to embrace the end of life with openness while understanding the natural journey we all take.
LITTLE NUGGETS OF GOLD:
- The Birth of Return Home: Providing families access to inclusive, gentle, transparent death care that continues the cycle of life
- What is human composting?
- How long does it take to return a body to Earth?
- What role do methane and other gases play in the process of terramation?
Connect with the Brienna Smith:
Website: https://returnhome.com/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@returnhomenor
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/returnhomenor/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@returnhomenor
Connect with Jennifer/The Glam Reaper:
Facebook Page - Muldowney Memorials: https://www.facebook.com/MuldowneyMemorials/
Facebook Page - Rainbow Bridge Memorials: https://www.facebook.com/rainbowbridgememorialsdotcom
Instagram - @muldowneymemorials & @jennifermuldowney
Twitter - @TheGlamReaper
Email us here: glamreaperpodcast@gmail.com
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Transcript
Introduction to the Glam Reaper Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Hi and welcome to another episode of the Glam Reaper podcast.
00:00:03
Speaker
I'm your host Jennifer Muldaney aka The Glam Reaper.
00:00:07
Speaker
On today's episode we're getting into the mud.
00:00:11
Speaker
Let's leave it at that.
00:00:12
Speaker
Let's take it away.
Introduction to Human Composting with Brie Smith
00:00:23
Speaker
Hi everyone and welcome to another episode of the Glam Reaper podcast.
00:00:26
Speaker
I'm your host Jennifer Muldowney aka the Glam Reaper and on today's episode we have the gorgeous, the lovely Brie and she's going to talk to us about all things dirt.
00:00:37
Speaker
So I'm being a bit funny with that and you'll soon find out why.
00:00:42
Speaker
Let's take it away.
00:00:43
Speaker
Brie, welcome.
00:00:44
Speaker
Thank you Jennifer.
00:00:45
Speaker
Thank you so much for having me on and I'm really excited just to chat with you about it today and answer all your questions.
00:00:52
Speaker
Well, tell us.
00:00:52
Speaker
Okay.
00:00:53
Speaker
So tell us who you are, where you're speaking to you from and what exactly it is that you do for a living.
00:01:01
Speaker
And I'm going to bumping it there.
00:01:04
Speaker
Bad jokes on the charts today.
00:01:07
Speaker
It's the vibe that makes it comfortable to have these types of conversations.
00:01:13
Speaker
I'm Bree Smith.
00:01:14
Speaker
I'm the chief operating officer at the largest facility for human composting in the world.
00:01:20
Speaker
It is called Return Home, and we are located in Auburn, Washington.
00:01:25
Speaker
And I have been with this company for two years.
00:01:28
Speaker
It's actually my two year anniversary in one month.
00:01:32
Speaker
And basically I oversee the entire facility.
00:01:36
Speaker
So I'm a licensed funeral director and embalmer.
00:01:39
Speaker
So I make sure that the families are met with and the operating procedures are in place for them to be taken care of and loved and
00:01:49
Speaker
served the way they need to be served.
00:01:50
Speaker
And then I also make sure that operations are running in the back of house for the actual process of composting itself.
00:01:58
Speaker
And basically just making sure everything is done with industry leading standards.
What is Teramation?
00:02:04
Speaker
Amazing.
00:02:05
Speaker
Now, for those of our listeners who maybe don't know, tell us what is human composting?
00:02:11
Speaker
So human composting, or what we like to call teramation,
00:02:15
Speaker
is the gentle transformation of human remains into soil.
00:02:20
Speaker
So instead of burial and cremation, we transform people into soil that is then returned to the family and they can choose to do what they want with that soil.
00:02:31
Speaker
And we also have a green belt if they can't take all of the soil because obviously in quantities, it's not an urn sized amount we're returning, it's quite a bit more.
00:02:40
Speaker
So essentially returning organic matter to the earth is very important to our company.
00:02:46
Speaker
Okay, so I can be put into a vessel, a capsule effectively, and I'm going to turn into soil.
00:02:55
Speaker
That's the kind of the short and the long of it.
00:02:58
Speaker
Okay, amazing.
Uses and Benefits of Composted Soil
00:03:00
Speaker
How much more, or does it depend on the human being, like the size of the human being, how much more ashes or like soil in your respect?
00:03:09
Speaker
So people are used to burial and cremation, right?
00:03:11
Speaker
So let's just, that's what people know.
00:03:12
Speaker
That's what they're comfortable with.
00:03:13
Speaker
That's what they're familiar with.
00:03:15
Speaker
You and I both know both of those are destructing of the environment.
00:03:19
Speaker
They're not good for climate.
00:03:21
Speaker
Like they're just bad.
00:03:24
Speaker
This is obviously potentially a solution, which is amazing.
00:03:29
Speaker
But talk to people, I guess, in terms of what they already know.
00:03:31
Speaker
So cremation, you get an urn.
00:03:33
Speaker
We all know, we don't all know, but we have an idea as to what the size of that is.
00:03:37
Speaker
Is it like three times that amount, 10 times?
00:03:41
Speaker
I can actually quantify it for you.
00:03:43
Speaker
So it's about a cubic yard.
00:03:48
Speaker
We put people into burlap because it allows the compost to continue breathing and it's also biodegradable.
00:03:54
Speaker
So when people go home, we send them home in burlap and it usually generates anywhere from 10 to 15 20 pound burlap bags.
00:04:04
Speaker
But ultimately, that quantity we have fit into the back of a Honda Fit.
00:04:08
Speaker
So it sounds like a lot, but really it's manageable.
00:04:13
Speaker
Okay.
00:04:13
Speaker
And people can use that in their backyard.
00:04:16
Speaker
They can use it anywhere they may have sort of sprinkled cremated remains before, right?
00:04:23
Speaker
That's right.
00:04:24
Speaker
Yeah.
00:04:24
Speaker
And that includes cemeteries as well.
00:04:26
Speaker
We've had some people return to soil and
00:04:29
Speaker
Basically, they're mixed with the soil and tampered down into their final resting place in a cemetery.
00:04:35
Speaker
So we've seen arboretums, gardens, of course, family properties where people have had that property for quite some time and it's in their family and it's generational.
00:04:46
Speaker
And then, yeah, it's an option for families from that and, you know, big properties all the way to a condo where the person has decided to memorialize their loved one in a house plant.
00:04:58
Speaker
So basically anything in between donating the full amount to what we call the woodland, which is our greenbelt property that we purchased to revitalize.
00:05:07
Speaker
the native flora in our area.
00:05:10
Speaker
It's just about 10 minutes north of our facility.
00:05:12
Speaker
So they can donate the full amount to restoration of Washington state in that way, or they can choose to take the full amount home.
00:05:18
Speaker
And for an example, one of my families took home the full amount and they lived on acreage.
00:05:25
Speaker
and decided to do a tree barrier wall with their father's remains where they have a big stone memorial that's engraved for him.
00:05:34
Speaker
And this tree of this barrier wall of trees is going to be protecting their home for generations to come.
00:05:41
Speaker
So those are a couple of examples.
00:05:43
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:44
Speaker
Wow.
The Teramation Process
00:05:45
Speaker
And so the human body goes into a specifically designed vessel and certain things are added and effectively or correct me if I'm wrong, effectively, it's speeding up what happens with natural burial.
00:05:58
Speaker
Right.
00:05:58
Speaker
Right.
00:05:59
Speaker
So we take straw, alfalfa, and sawdust, and we have vessels that have inputs for oxygen and outputs for oxygen.
00:06:07
Speaker
So it's an aerobic process.
00:06:09
Speaker
And essentially, if you died in nature, we all know that you would break down naturally.
00:06:14
Speaker
And some of it might be driven by animal activity, and some of it might be driven by just the natural breakdown of your body.
00:06:21
Speaker
But ultimately, our bodies really were made to turn back into
00:06:25
Speaker
earth the same way when leaves fall on the ground, they reintegrate with the earth.
00:06:30
Speaker
And so we just use that same technology literally that's existed since time began.
00:06:35
Speaker
It's as old as time and as long as things have been living.
00:06:40
Speaker
And we've optimized the environment in which the breakdown takes place.
00:06:45
Speaker
So we're able to accommodate families to have the service and return their loved ones back within 60 to 90 days, roughly.
00:06:55
Speaker
Okay, so 60 to 90 days, you're in this container and then your soil.
00:07:01
Speaker
So there's different steps, of course.
00:07:03
Speaker
We have different phases of our process.
00:07:06
Speaker
The initial breakdown of the body is 30 to 60 days.
00:07:10
Speaker
And that is dependent on the build of the person.
00:07:15
Speaker
Do they have a lot of fat?
00:07:16
Speaker
Are they really emaciated?
00:07:19
Speaker
What kind of case are we dealing with?
00:07:20
Speaker
And then we can kind of gauge how long they'll be in that first phase.
00:07:24
Speaker
We do the same thing like after cremation.
00:07:26
Speaker
So after that first phase, the body has transformed into soil, but the bones remain.
00:07:31
Speaker
and then anything inside of the body that was inorganic.
00:07:34
Speaker
So things they tell us about like stints and screws and plates and things they don't tell us about like silicone, we call them squishies and hards.
00:07:42
Speaker
We remove all of the inorganics from the person's compost.
00:07:46
Speaker
And then everything goes through machinery that breaks it down to become uniform.
00:07:51
Speaker
And when that happens, the bone becomes porous.
00:07:54
Speaker
And then the microbes continue to do that breakdown that they were doing inside of the vessel, but now on the bones.
00:08:02
Speaker
And that takes another 30 days to have happen.
00:08:06
Speaker
Okay, so the body goes in and during phase one, there's certain decomposition and then you take out sort of implants and anything like that and they're recycled in however way they're dealt with.
00:08:17
Speaker
But you leave the bones and the squishy matter left.
00:08:23
Speaker
You leave that in there to further decompose.
00:08:26
Speaker
So the squishy would be implants like breast implants or Brazilian or things of that sort.
00:08:31
Speaker
So at that point, there's no flesh that has completely become integrated.
00:08:38
Speaker
OK, so the 30 days, there's no flesh.
00:08:40
Speaker
That's what I was thinking of the squishy.
00:08:41
Speaker
I have a lot of squishy.
00:08:42
Speaker
So that's why I'm calling it squishy.
00:08:45
Speaker
OK, so after 30 days, there's no squishy left.
00:08:48
Speaker
There's just implants and, you know, like breast implants that are I can understand now that they're squishy.
00:08:55
Speaker
And then the harder implants and my plates and things and then the bones and then the bones go in and they get further decomposed.
00:09:03
Speaker
Yes.
00:09:03
Speaker
So the, like I said, the compost, those organics and the bones all go through, not quite a cremulator, but something very similar that breaks the bone down so that it's uniform with the compost.
00:09:15
Speaker
And then after that happens, it rests for another 30 days to allow the microbial activity to kind of complete its final phase, if you will.
00:09:23
Speaker
And then at that point, people are ready to be returned home to their loved ones.
00:09:28
Speaker
Oh, okay.
00:09:29
Speaker
And so, because I know like in your typical cremated remains, the pH balance is off of the, you know, the pH balance.
00:09:39
Speaker
People think you can put a seed into cremated remains and turn into a tree.
00:09:43
Speaker
And I'm like, no, it doesn't work like that.
00:09:45
Speaker
And now I'm no scientist.
00:09:46
Speaker
So, but with yours, you're taking, your soil allows for that.
00:09:54
Speaker
So the pH balance has been
00:09:57
Speaker
Balanced, I guess, is the.
00:09:58
Speaker
Correct.
00:09:59
Speaker
So nature is amazing and beautiful.
00:10:02
Speaker
And when we let it do its thing in its time, it has a way of producing something that not only will it rise in temperature so that if there were any pathogens that does actually I'll do a little asterisk that prion related diseases cannot go through our process.
00:10:19
Speaker
because the temperatures do not get high enough.
00:10:21
Speaker
But, you know, any other, any cancer, people ask a lot about radiation and chemotherapy, anything of that sort, because of the temperature inside of the vessel during that first phase, actually becomes inert.
00:10:34
Speaker
And the pH does balance itself out.
00:10:37
Speaker
And what happens is, is the state of Washington, where we're located, requires us to do really rigorous testing on the soil and
00:10:45
Speaker
So they go through and they check for things like salmonella and fecal coliform and heavy metals and all these different things.
00:10:52
Speaker
And we've never not had a passing soil sample.
00:10:57
Speaker
So we know that everything that's going back to families is able to be used and is healthy to use and safe to use for sure.
00:11:07
Speaker
So for us, the state of Washington has a lot of requirements and one of those is that everyone who goes through our process for the first X amount and then a certain percentage after that, the science, the soil has to be tested by a third party.
00:11:22
Speaker
And we're tested for things like pH, what you discussed, fecal coliform, salmonella, heavy metals,
00:11:29
Speaker
And we have to pass those regulations set by the state in order to return people home to their loved one.
00:11:36
Speaker
We've actually never failed a test still to this day.
00:11:39
Speaker
We've had amazing results with our process.
00:11:41
Speaker
And we do find that the pH ends up being right down the middle, right at about six or seven.
00:11:46
Speaker
So it's completely healthy to use on, you know, plant matter and in your home.
00:11:52
Speaker
And it's it's
00:11:54
Speaker
okay to interact with it physically, so to tangibly touch it and use it, which for us is, it's a great point of validation for us to be able to tell people that because I think a lot of people get these
00:12:09
Speaker
preconceived notions of disease spreading, plagues, you know, things that are really, really awful when pathogens are able to run rampant.
00:12:18
Speaker
But because of the temperatures inside of the vessels in the first phase, things like, you know, COVID-19 or any pathogens that might exist within the body or chemotherapy or radiation are
00:12:30
Speaker
All of these things are going to become inert and actually radiation.
00:12:35
Speaker
We wouldn't put them in the vessel until the half-life
Challenges and Limitations of Teramation
00:12:37
Speaker
was gone anyway.
00:12:37
Speaker
But the only people we're not allowed to help are those with prion related diseases because the temperature does not get high enough to kill those pathogens.
00:12:48
Speaker
And we would suggest cremation for those families or alkaline hydrolysis.
00:12:54
Speaker
Right.
00:12:55
Speaker
God, it's very fascinating.
00:12:57
Speaker
Now, what about... So when we're in the vessel, is there... Like, what about methane gases?
00:13:05
Speaker
You know, because coming from Ireland, very much a farming country and stuff, and obviously...
00:13:10
Speaker
I personally am very into the environment and as much as I can I try and absorb it's sort of one of my pillars in the funeral space the environment right the funeral I feel like the funeral community kind of I don't want to say got away with it for so long but nobody wanted to talk about it and so you know politicians just same people don't want to talk about it I mean I've met with politicians who I'll mention it to them and they go God I never even thought of the death industry and I'm like yeah I mean really so
00:13:40
Speaker
So methane is obviously a huge problem.
00:13:42
Speaker
How does that get captured or does it or tell me?
00:13:46
Speaker
So I love the question about methane because it is so vital to our process that it stay anaerobic, which means we are constantly monitoring the moisture, the oxygen flow and the temperature inside of that vessel.
00:13:59
Speaker
And oxygen regulates that methane problem.
00:14:02
Speaker
So as long as oxygen is moving through the vessel, we don't have methane.
00:14:07
Speaker
What happens is if the person and the organics inside have too much moisture or too little moisture, they'll either solidify and the oxygen can't flow through and then we have an issue or it's too dry and too much oxygen is going through and we're essentially mummifying that person, really drying them out.
00:14:26
Speaker
So we have optimized this science.
00:14:28
Speaker
We actually started research and development in 2019
00:14:32
Speaker
when the law in Washington was passed to ensure that our processes, when they were done on humans, were completely dialed.
00:14:41
Speaker
And that's what we did.
00:14:42
Speaker
So we tested on pigs for about two and a half years to ensure no methane.
00:14:47
Speaker
What's also amazing about our process, and our system is set up in a warehouse, but the reason for that is because we have a really intricate HVAC system.
00:14:55
Speaker
In fact, one that we probably over-engineered for the service that it offers us.
00:14:59
Speaker
We learned a lot.
00:15:01
Speaker
But ultimately, that HVAC system allows for the off-gassing, and then it leads to a biofilter that is full of wood chips that are coated in chicken poop.
00:15:10
Speaker
Chicken poop is nitrogen dense, and so when odorous air goes through that biofilter, those microbes in that chicken poop actually consume the odorous air.
00:15:21
Speaker
And so we are able to run a completely odorless process
00:15:24
Speaker
both inside and outside due to that.
00:15:27
Speaker
And that's all connected to that oxygen movement.
00:15:30
Speaker
Yeah.
Future of Human Composting
00:15:31
Speaker
Wow.
00:15:32
Speaker
Honestly, I have said it for years.
00:15:36
Speaker
Back when I saw Katrina in Greenwood, and I know you guys are, it's a separate facilities and everything like that.
00:15:41
Speaker
But back when this became, was kind of an idea that people were talking about, I am dying, not dying, dying actually, but I really want to go and see your facility for myself, take the Glam Reaper podcast and just really, you know, walk through the facility and see it for myself with my own eyes.
00:15:58
Speaker
Because I do feel like a lot of people, that's where they trust, they believe once they can see it with their own eyes.
00:16:05
Speaker
Now, obviously, in very exciting news, New York State just passed at the start of this year that this can be a thing here in New York.
00:16:15
Speaker
Is there any, have you heard any rumblings either of yourselves or anybody else who may bring it to New York?
00:16:23
Speaker
Or can you give us any inside gossip?
00:16:26
Speaker
Well, I can tell you this.
00:16:28
Speaker
I know that Washington State and New York laws are very different for a funeral and cemetery.
00:16:33
Speaker
So I think that the way the law was written, it might not quite be ready for what return home does, which is so family oriented, as in we invite families to do and participate in every part of the process from, you know, the at home funeral to the
00:16:51
Speaker
transportation of remains to bathing at our facility.
00:16:54
Speaker
So for us, I think that right now we're just holding on New York and hoping for an upgrade in the verbiage in that law.
00:17:03
Speaker
And I can tell you, I do have many friends in the space and I don't know that anyone's seeking New York, but what I do know is that a lot of people from New York are seeking us.
00:17:12
Speaker
So I think it's a strain of things to come that there are funeral professionals and
00:17:17
Speaker
in those states that are having legislation pass who really do want to offer this to their families and return home really a big part of what we hoped to do and you kind of mentioned it is to open up the facility to expose people to what it is via social media and we get a lot of intrigue from the industry because we're so transparent with what we do
00:17:42
Speaker
That I think there's just an underlying base of respect for our outreach to the industry specifically, because I think, you know, and I can't necessarily speak for the other facilities, but maybe they just don't share the information as freely as we do.
00:17:58
Speaker
But there's a reason for that.
00:17:59
Speaker
And it's because we want the funeral industry to know that I've been an embalmer for over a decade.
00:18:04
Speaker
I know what the job that you do.
00:18:06
Speaker
I know the work that you do and I can do it too, but you can't do what I do.
00:18:09
Speaker
And I want to share with you why these families are choosing this option.
00:18:13
Speaker
And it's because it's gentle, it's life-giving.
00:18:16
Speaker
It takes very little resources.
00:18:18
Speaker
It's
00:18:19
Speaker
we are a team of six people, but really solely four people who manage and operate all of the families and all of the decedents who come into our care.
00:18:28
Speaker
So on a very skeleton staff, we're able to serve a very large group of people and not to mention from all over the United States.
00:18:36
Speaker
So, you know, the families in New York who heard of it passing, don't have access to it, will ship their loved ones all the way to Washington for this to take place.
00:18:44
Speaker
So we know
00:18:45
Speaker
that the need is out there, the want is out there to the point where they're doing something really non-traditional, which is going to a funeral home thousands of miles away for a service that just isn't offered in their area.
00:18:58
Speaker
So we're excited to see where this grows to and how this expands for sure.
00:19:03
Speaker
Well, that is amazing.
Closing Remarks
00:19:05
Speaker
And thank you so much.
00:19:06
Speaker
We're going to end on that note and we'll probably get you back.
00:19:08
Speaker
We had a few technical difficulties during this episode, which hopefully the listeners and the viewers don't get to witness and see.
00:19:15
Speaker
But thank you so much, Bree.
00:19:18
Speaker
That was super educational.
00:19:20
Speaker
And hopefully we'll get some questions in from our listeners that can ask, you know, the questions maybe I didn't ask because I think it's an amazing opportunity
00:19:30
Speaker
opportunity i really hope new york does get behind it um i think it's i think it seems like a beautiful um process burial and cremation need some competition as far as i'm concerned in terms of we need to help mother nature a little bit more than we are especially in our space um so thank you so much for giving us all your words of wisdom oh it's been fun jennifer and i'll be back on any time and if you're ever in the seattle area you just absolutely have to come see us
00:20:07
Speaker
So that was another great episode of the Glam Reaper podcast.
00:20:11
Speaker
What do you think?
00:20:12
Speaker
Would you get your remains composted?
00:20:15
Speaker
Would your parents, your loved ones?
00:20:17
Speaker
Let us know your thoughts in the comments, DM us, or in general, just let us know.
00:20:22
Speaker
You can send us an email, glamreaperpodcast at gmail.com, and we look forward to hearing from you soon.
00:20:39
Speaker
so