South-Portland-based Wend & Root is developing next-generation human composting technology, also known as “natural organic reduction.”
Get Instant Access to This Article
Subscribe to Mainebiz and get immediate access to all of our subscriber-only content and much more.
- Critical Maine business news updated daily.
- Immediate access to all subscriber-only content on our website.
- Bi-weekly print or digital editions of our award-winning publication.
- Special bonus issues like the Mainebiz Book of Lists.
- Exclusive ticket prize draws for our in-person events.
Click here to purchase a paywall bypass link for this article.
A startup called Wend & Root, led by Tricia Jamiol, is developing next-generation human composting technology, also known as “natural organic reduction.”
Part of this year’s Top Gun 15-week training program of the Maine Center for Entrepreneurs in Portland and the Northern Maine Development Commission in Caribou, Wend & Root aims to make "climate-responsible human composting systems available widely," according to the former social worker.
Mainebiz caught up with the South Portland-based entrepreneur to find out more.
Mainebiz: What’s your background?
Tricia Jamiol: I was a licensed clinical social worker. I spent a lot of time at the Center for Grieving Children, cofacilitating bereavement groups. It made me comfortable with death and dying, the end of life and how people honor their loved ones after their lives are over.
I happened to be walking my dog in a cemetery. Looking at the headstones, I realized that was not what I wanted for myself. I decided I wanted to come back as a tree. That idea evolved during COVID. I started a green cemetery nonprofit, working with a board of directors and when we have land, we want it to be designed as botanical gardens and have green burials. That’s how I first learned about human composting, which was legalized in Maine in 2024. [LD 536, “An Act to Provide Natural Organic Reduction Facilities for Maine Residents for the Conversion of Human Remains to Soil,” provides for the treatment of human remains by natural organic reduction, defined as the contained accelerated conversion of human remains to soil.]
MB: How does natural organic reduction work?
TJ: It uses a controlled biological process to transform the body into soil. I’m designing a system of stainless steel pods. A body would be put into a pod and mixed with organic matter. With heat, time, and moisture, it turns into compost. Typically, the process takes 30 to 45 days in a facility where the process and emissions have strict controls. Wend & Root is working with different materials to see if we can add less material to the pods to get the same results faster.
MB: How did you come to the knowledge of natural organic reduction?
TJ: A business in Washington, called Recompose, pioneered this process. In the sustainability world, it’s definitely emerging.
MB: What’s the status of rolling this out?
TJ: My plan is to have a manufacturing facility in Maine (hiring Mainers) that would be used to manufacture the pod system and the composite materials we would be using once those are verified in research. I’ve been working on this since last fall. We have a lot of the processes in place and are ready to go in terms of research and development.