Today, the only common options available are burial or cremation, which are not particularly environmentally friendly; Coffins take up a lot of precious space and are made of slow-biodegrading wood, and cremation requires temperatures up to 1800 degrees Fahrenheit, which is not really energy efficient. Then there is the possibility of sending a corpse into space in a rocket that is not green for obvious reasons. The trial is at the forefront of a major movement to “green” death. There is growing concern about the carbon footprint left by standard burial and cremation processes. Cities lack burial space and many materials used in burials – including embalming fluids and coffins – have toxic effects on the environment. But how much carbon is actually emitted in both processes? Dutch figures, usually cited by proponents of alkaline hydrolysis, suggest that fire burns account for only a few thousandths of a percent of total carbon emissions in the United States. Each person who becomes liquid instead of ash would keep about 180 kilograms of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, according to the NWT report. That`s about as much as the average U.S. citizen has to issue in just a few days.
Joe Wilson, CEO of Bio-Response Solutions — a company that specializes in liquid cremation — told Seeker earlier this year that the energy used in a single flame cremation could heat a Minnesota home for an entire week in the winter. California law will go into effect in 2020. Currently, 14 other states have legalized water cremation, according to the New York Post. One concern could be the amount of water used — about 300 gallons per cadaver. Gloria says this might be a consideration during droughts, but otherwise it`s a drop in the ocean. “If every Californian who died in a year used water, that would be 64 million gallons of water this year,” he says. “A water treatment plant in Los Angeles consumes more than 500 million gallons a day.” While you can`t scatter traditional ash on Venice Beach because it`s relatively toxic — it`s ash, after all — you won`t have those limitations with the result of a water burn, Ingraham says. Baskerville said the process produces 20 to 30 percent more ash than flame burning. To “burn water,” the body is placed in a pressurized steel chamber filled with an alkaline solution consisting of 95 percent water and 5 percent potassium hydroxide, according to the Funeral Consumers Alliance of Minnesota. The chamber is then heated to about 350 degrees Fahrenheit (177 degrees Celsius), which is significantly lower than the 1,600 to 1,800 degrees F (871 to 982 degrees C) needed to burn a burning body, says the Funeral Consumers Alliance.
Water cremation or “alkaline hydrolysis” is considered a more environmentally friendly option for handling end-of-life residues. Because nothing is burned during the procedure, no toxic gases or air pollutants are produced, according to the Mayo Clinic, which uses the procedure in its anatomy department in Rochester, Minnesota. On Sunday, Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB 967, a controversial bill that has toured the country in recent years. It makes it legal to dispose of human remains through a process commonly known as water cremation (or alkaline hydrolysis, aquamation or biocombustion). Once the body is dissolved, the remaining bones are reduced to ashes and returned to the family, in the same way that the remains are returned after cremation, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Matt Baskerville, an Illinois funeral director, told the San Francisco Chronicle that the consistency of this ash resembles that of ivory-colored icing sugar, as opposed to the dense, coarse texture of ash obtained after a flame burn. The chemical process behind aquamation is called alkaline hydrolysis, in which a body is put into a solution of potassium hydroxide and water that is heated to about 200 degrees Fahrenheit, a temperature slightly lower than boiling and awaiting dissolution. The procedure, called water cremation (or aquamation, resumation, bio-cremation or flameless cremation), has been proposed as a much more environmentally friendly method of disposing of a body after death. The bill is sponsored by Qico, Inc., a “sustainable cremation” company specializing in this form of corpse disposal, and will go into effect at least July 1, 2020. What`s next for aquamation in California? Ingraham says his two-year-old company expects its technology to be ready by 2019 and agree with government regulators by then.
In the meantime, he hopes demand for this new technology will increase, which he says will cost a bit more than traditional cremation, but will ultimately be determined by funeral homes. Some see alkaline hydrolysis — versions called biocremation, aquamation and resumation — as the next big thing for those looking to make an eco-friendly outing. As for flesh, blood and intestines? Everything else is dissolved in a green-brown liquid, which is slightly less alkaline than at the beginning of the process. What starts as a solution with a very strongly alkaline pH of 14 (as simple as possible) ends somewhere at pH 11. Truly neutral water has a pH of about 7, so technicians sometimes add an acidic substance like vinegar to compensate for any excess hydroxides. Californians no longer have to choose to be buried or cremated when they die. On October 15, Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill authorizing a new option called “water cremation.” While the process may seem grotesque, it`s similar to the natural processes that occur in the body after death, says the Mayo Clinic. Water cremation converts the body`s tissues and cells into an aqueous solution of molecules – in other words, it dissolves the body – leaving only the bones behind. The combination of alkaline solution, pressure and heat accelerates what could take more than two decades to form naturally after a body is buried, says the Funeral Consumers Alliance. According to a 2016 report by the National Funeral Directors Association, more people used cremation than burial in 2015, and that number has increased over time. But environmentalists say regular flame burning isn`t the best when it comes to the environment either.
California state bill aims to legalize liquefaction of corpses Proponents note that traditional cremation tends to increase in the United States. In 2015, more people were burned in this country than first buried, according to a report by the National Funeral Directors Association. This fad is partly due to price: a burn typically costs less than a third of a funeral, according to an industry report from market research firm IBISWorld. It also saves some natural resources; A burial requires soil as well as stone, steel, cloth and wood from which the casket and headstone are made. “When people hear about it, they tend to prefer,” he says, noting that white “ashes” from water-based cremation can be scattered in more places. An average of 300 gallons of water, according to the manufacturer, is used per human body when cremating water. Despite its name, water cremation does not involve flushing a corpse down the toilet or drowning in hot water. In fact, it`s more of a bath. The body is placed in a steel container and bathed in alkaline solution for about four hours.
But this final means of disposition crosses uncomfortable limits for some. Take the case of Edwards Funeral Service in Columbus, Ohio, which began offering alkaline hydrolysis in 2011: owner Jeff Edwards dissolved 19 bodies before the Ohio Department of Health suddenly stopped licensing the trial, and the Ohio Council of Embalmers and Funeral Directors accused him of “immoral or unprofessional behavior.” A chaotic legal battle has left him with $150,000 worth of equipment that accumulates dust, he says.