Bio-cremation: Dip, Strip, Flush and Grind
Posted: Tuesday, October 11, 2011
by Jack H. Schick
I must have been about ten when my mom told me that my grandfather was going to be cremated when he died. It up set me. I assumed people were always buried. None of my “loved ones” had died yet, but I’d been to cemeteries with my parents to visit relatives I’d never known. It was something about life that I thought was consistent. I actually cried about my grandfather’s decision. I envisioned him reduced to a pile of dust and poured into a peanut butter jar.
He died in August a few years later. The University sent a man and a van to pick him up. My uncle and I had to help stuff him into a rubber body bag, get him on the stretcher and load him into the back. He’d been lying around on the bedroom floor for a few hours by then, so it wasn’t as traumatic as it might have been. We were used to seeing the body. My grandmother and mother were crying, but my uncle and I were okay.
My grandfather’s ashes finally came back, by special delivery, the following January. I imagined him lying around the university dissecting room in various stages of dismemberment for the entire fall semester. They probably kept him in the refrigerator at night then wheeled him out and let the students carve on him during their laboratory periods. Since polio is pretty much conquered by then, I don’t know what they did with the information they got.
His urn was nothing like a peanut butter jar. It sat around my grandmother’s place for a couple of months till the weather got nicer. She hired Mr. Tarantino to cut a grave stone, and in the spring, my uncle and I wrestled it out to my grandfather’s favorite spot on our woods property. We propped it up against a big rock then opened the urn with a screwdriver and dumped out his ashes near the stone. I looked closely to see if there was a tooth or a recognizable piece of bone, but it was just indistinguishable chunks and dust. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, and all that.
All the rest of my “loved ones” were buried in the traditional, expensive, perverse manner. My wife said she wants to be cremated. It didn’t up set me. I told her to tell the kids, because, if things go normally, I’ll already be dead. I personally don’t care what they do with my corpse. It won’t be my problem any more. They can stuff me and stand me up in the corner at Halloween, as far as I’m concerned.
I read something in the newspaper that made me think about all this. In the standard cremation process the body is burned, of course. It’s not like the old Viking burning boat or funeral pyre. It’s more like a Nazi oven process. The concern, in this age of environmental fanaticism, is the smoke. It’s not exactly a “green” process. Consequently they’ve developed a (allegedly), eco-friendly chemical ‘cremation’ process. They dissolve the body rather than burn it.
The “bio-cremation” process is called alkaline hydrolysis. The body is placed in a pressurized drum that holds up to 400 gallons of water. The volume depends on the size of the corpse (one guy at work would probably require the full amount). A four percent potash lye (potassium hydroxide) solution is added. The chemical is used in a variety of things from antifreeze to soap to Oil of Olay. The solution is heated to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and constantly circulated through the drum for between two and four hours.
The body’s soft tissue is dissolved into a soapy, murky liquid that is sterile. It contains no ‘human remains’ or DNA. The only things that are left in the drum is bone and metal, such as pacemakers, replacement joints and gold teeth. The bones are then pulverized into powder and given back to the family in an urn, like in a regular cremation. The process is described as natural decomposition on fast-forward. The wastewater is dumped down the drain and ends up at the sewer plant. It is then further processed and released to the receiving waters. Ashes to ashes, water to water, so to speak.
The process has been used in the medical and research fields for more than a decade. The process is gaining acceptance nationwide. It is legal for the process to be used by the aforesaid industries in Maine, Minnesota, Oregon and Florida. It will be legal in Kansas and Maryland by the end of this year (2011). 14 other states are considering it. There have been some legislative set-backs. A bill to approve the process was defeated in New Hampshire, and in New York the proposal has been dubbed the “Hannibal Lecter Bill.” Prospects for its passage do not look good.
The Anderson-McQueen Funeral Home in St. Petersburg, Florida, could be the first in the nation to be permitted to offer the bio-cremation process to the public. Company president, Bill McQueen has asked the city for permission to use the technology. “We feel that in every facet of our life, people are becoming much more environmentally conscious,” he said. “Why not in regards to life transition issues as well?”
The ‘green’ advantage of the process over regular cremation are: no greenhouse gases released; no use of fossil fuels for incineration; no need to surgically remove radioactive pacemakers before the procedure; no need to ‘scrub’ the emissions of mercury from dental fillings or other pollutants; and the ash is finer and can be contained in smaller urns. The alkaline hydrolysis process will cost about the same as fire-based cremation ($2,800 at Anderson-McQueen), but the carbon footprint is much smaller.
The National Association of Funeral Directors reported that 56% of Florida’s deceased (dead bodies, corpses, Earthly shells) were cremated in 2009 and the number is growing. Before St. Pete approves Anderson-McQueen’s application they want to make sure the process is ‘technically feasible.’ They want to know exactly what is being flushed to the sewer collection system and if the treatment plants can handle it.
I'd guess it's probably okay. As a wastewater treatment plant employee, I’ve seen some pretty amazing things come down the sewer pipes. I don’t think a puddle of Grandpop would spook me much.
This Article has been viewed 437 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
Top-level comments on this article: (4 total)I enjoyed your article! Thank you for the informative yet entertaining read. It's hard to get both of those qualities in a single article. :)
SamThanks, Sam! for reading and commenting
On January 27, 2011, CycledLife's 1st alkali disposition system was operated by a funeral director. CycledLife, a.k.a. alkali disposition, is about saving the health of one's family and friends. CycledLife's EcoSpa(TM) creates a nutrient enriched water (ANEW) that is spread upon the earth, not put into the sewer. Our system operates at a low-temperature, so there is no buildup of pressure.I merely used information I found in a newspaper article and on line. I'll check out your company
Thanks for the info, much appreciated.thanks for reading and commenting
This was interesting to me. My mother died last December. She donated her body to the mdical school. When they asked my dad about the crreamains my dad said he didn't want them. I found that a little off putting. She was there and then she was just gone. I'm OK with that, but it is still sort of a "what happened" sort of feeling. I intended to be cremated myself, but did not know about this method discussed in your article. Is it "green" cremation?It's green, they say. Thanks for reading and commenting
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.