BOSTON — Massachusetts's sprawling economic development bill is billed as a package to drive jobs, industry and growth. Tucked inside it is a plan to let the state compost human beings into soil.

Rather than a simple sign-off, the amendment would stand up an entirely new state licensing regime. Composting and hydrolysis facilities would need operating licenses from the Division of Occupational Licensure, with regulations written by the Board of Registration in Embalming and Funeral Directing in consultation with the Department of Public Health — covering "operational standards, personnel qualifications, environmental safeguards, and testing for pathogens and toxic materials." Funeral directors, embalmers and crematory operators could add a composting or hydrolysis certification after completing state-approved coursework.

The amendment carries over the safeguards that already govern cremation — a 48-hour waiting period before a body may be processed, a medical examiner's sign-off, and permanent disposition records — while veterans whose remains go unclaimed would still be sent to a veterans' cemetery.

Human composting is legal in about a dozen states, starting with Washington in 2019, and supporters pitch it as a greener, cheaper alternative to embalming. But in Massachusetts, the question of whether the state should be composting and dissolving human remains isn't getting a debate of its own — it is being settled as amendment No. 273 on a bill about growing the economy.