How to change your will to ensure you are composted when you die.

Photo by Melinda Gimpel on Unsplash

When you write or update your will, there is usually a section where you have a choice to tell your family whether you want to be buried or cremated. Here are the words, that you or your lawyer are welcome to copy, modify as required, and use, that the estate lawyer for Earthly Legacy’s founder, Teresa Russell, drafted for her:

WISHES IN RELATION TO THE DISPOSAL OF MY BODY

I WISH that my Executors arrange for my body to undertake the process of in-vessel human composting, preferably with Earthly Legacy, provided that if Earthly Legacy is not operational at the time of my death, then I WISH for another provider to compost my body.

I WISH that my Executors allow my children, XXX and YYY, to decide if they want to receive some or all of my compost/soil but whatever is not wanted by them should be donated to any project that is regenerating degraded land.

IF human composting is not available in Australia at the time of my death, then I WISH that my Executors arrange from my body to be disposed of in the next best way in terms of low impact on the environment (of primary importance) and low cost (of secondary importance).

END OF SECTION

A big thank-you to Justine Taylor from Uther Webster & Evans (UWE) Solicitors in Sydney for crafting these words and allowing them to be copied free of cost.