Overview
- The Landtag in Kiel voted unanimously on Thursday to add reerdigung to state burial law, making it a permanent alternative alongside earth burial and cremation.
- Reerdigung places a body in a closed plant‑based cocoon of hay, straw and green cut where microbes transform remains into humus in about 40 days before cemetery interment.
- Authorities cited a two-year pilot overseen by the University of Leipzig that recorded 76 cases through the end of April as the basis for the legal change.
- The law keeps the requirement that remains be buried on a cemetery while removing the coffin mandate for this method, raising operational and financial questions for cemetery managers and funeral providers.
- Religious leaders from the main churches and a broad cross-party coalition supported the reform, and providers claim lower CO2 emissions from reerdigung though those environmental claims are not independently verified.