BBC News – New body ‘liquefaction’ unit unveiled in Florida funeral home via BB.
The unit by Resomation Ltd is billed as a green alternative to cremation and works by dissolving the body in heated alkaline water.
The facility has been installed at the Anderson-McQueen funeral home in St Petersburg, and will be used for the first time in the coming weeks. It is hoped other units will follow in the US, Canada and Europe.
The makers claim the process produces a third less greenhouse gas than cremation, uses a seventh of the energy, and allows for the complete separation of dental amalgam for safe disposal.
Mercury from amalgam vaporised in crematoria is blamed for up to 16% of UK airborne mercury emissions, and many UK crematoria are currently fitting mercury filtration systems to meet reduced emission targets.
The 7 billionth person is about to be born on this planet, we don’t live forever – what will the “greener” exit strategies be?
42 thoughts on “News From The Future: Body ‘Liquefaction’”
Comments are closed.
ADVERTISEMENT
Join Make: Community Today
Reminds me of the Soylent Green processing plant.
Reminds me of the Soylent Green processing plant.
The greenest exit strategy would be excarnation and disposal by exposure, like the sky burials of tibet and the zoroastrian funerary practice. It use no coffins, and needs no place to hold the body, except for an open air zone for the predators to come. It’s also ecological, and consumes no energy, save for the people who has to dispose the body.
By some extrange taboo, people tends to find this practice disgusting.
The greenest exit strategy would be excarnation and disposal by exposure, like the sky burials of tibet and the zoroastrian funerary practice. It use no coffins, and needs no place to hold the body, except for an open air zone for the predators to come. It’s also ecological, and consumes no energy, save for the people who has to dispose the body.
By some extrange taboo, people tends to find this practice disgusting.
The greenest exit strategy would be excarnation and disposal by exposure, like the sky burials of tibet and the zoroastrian funerary practice. It use no coffins, and needs no place to hold the body, except for an open air zone for the predators to come. It’s also ecological, and consumes no energy, save for the people who has to dispose the body.
By some extrange taboo, people tends to find this practice disgusting.
The greenest exit strategy would be excarnation and disposal by exposure, like the sky burials of tibet and the zoroastrian funerary practice. It use no coffins, and needs no place to hold the body, except for an open air zone for the predators to come. It’s also ecological, and consumes no energy, save for the people who has to dispose the body.
By some extrange taboo, people tends to find this practice disgusting.
Regrettably, the vultures that are essential for this practice are in serious decline in India (http://www.vqronline.org/articles/2011/spring/subramanian-vultures/) due to a veterinary pain killer whose residue in an animal’s body is fatal to the vultures that scavenge them. Maybe dermestid beetles could be used? Dunno.
The greenest exit strategy would be excarnation and disposal by exposure, like the sky burials of tibet and the zoroastrian funerary practice. It use no coffins, and needs no place to hold the body, except for an open air zone for the predators to come. It’s also ecological, and consumes no energy, save for the people who has to dispose the body.
By some extrange taboo, people tends to find this practice disgusting.
The greenest exit strategy would be excarnation and disposal by exposure, like the sky burials of tibet and the zoroastrian funerary practice. It use no coffins, and needs no place to hold the body, except for an open air zone for the predators to come. It’s also ecological, and consumes no energy, save for the people who has to dispose the body.
By some extrange taboo, people tends to find this practice disgusting.
The greenest exit strategy would be excarnation and disposal by exposure, like the sky burials of tibet and the zoroastrian funerary practice. It use no coffins, and needs no place to hold the body, except for an open air zone for the predators to come. It’s also ecological, and consumes no energy, save for the people who has to dispose the body.
By some extrange taboo, people tends to find this practice disgusting.
The greenest exit strategy would be excarnation and disposal by exposure, like the sky burials of tibet and the zoroastrian funerary practice. It use no coffins, and needs no place to hold the body, except for an open air zone for the predators to come. It’s also ecological, and consumes no energy, save for the people who has to dispose the body.
By some extrange taboo, people tends to find this practice disgusting.
I hate how much money and energy much of the industrialized world wastes on the dead. I blame religion. Just let nature take its course. I wish there was an option to have a hole dug and throw my dead body in there when I die. I just want to rot back into the earth.
Oh, that is a viable option. Just borrow money from a “goodfella” and refuse to pay him back. You’ll soon find yourself in the situation you describe…
:-)
I hate how much money and energy much of the industrialized world wastes on the dead. I blame religion. Just let nature take its course. I wish there was an option to have a hole dug and throw my dead body in there when I die. I just want to rot back into the earth.
Awesome, but I wouldn’t want to live downstream of the facility. I wonder if it makes decent fertilizer, after it has been PH balanced?
The most ethical (opinion, not fact) way to dispose of a body after death is donation: both organ donation and donation to medical school (everyone needs cadavers!). For a maker, it’s the ultimate in recycling and re-use!
I would imagine the most “green friendly” method would be worm composting. Grind ’em up, mix in some soil, add worms, and wait. Unless you’re planning on having a taxidermist preserve you, you’re ending up as water, carbon dioxide, and trace elements sooner or later.
I don’t see this happening, however, due to cultural and religious influences on how we handle the dead. Funerals and body disposal are not for the dead, but for the living.
I work on a state department of agriculture campus, not for them, and this is the method they use to dispose of diseased animal carcases. It works, but it smells absolutely horrid.
Can Soylent Green be far behind?
Can Soylent Green be far behind?
Can Soylent Green be far behind?