(NewsReady.com) – Many businesses and people have become more conscious about their carbon footprint. That includes the funeral industry. A new way to cremate people has now become available in Britain.
Resomation or aquamation is a green alternative form of cremation. Instead of placing a corpse in a cremation chamber and heating it up to 1,800° Fahrenheit, the body decomposes in water. The deceased person is placed in a biodegradable pouch and put inside a container filled with potassium hydroxide and pressurized water, then boiled at 160° Celsius, or 320° Fahrenheit. The process transforms the cells and tissues into a watery solution in just four hours.
The bones, however, remain intact. They are then dried and turned into a white powder that’s given back to the families.
The process is considered a green alternative because cremating the body in the traditional way releases toxic gases and carbon dioxide. Burials also risk contaminating the groundwater, putting it at risk for the general public.
In Britain, Co-op Funeralcare will begin offering the service to those who want it. It will begin launching pilot locations for the service later this year. The water cremation practice is growing in popularity. It’s available in Canada, the majority of US states, and South Africa.
In America, people can donate their bodies to the Mayo Clinic, so the Department of Anatomy can use the resomation method on them. Those who donate their entire bodies to the Clinic won’t have to pay any cost for the procedure. The clinic returns the bone fragments to the families or inters them at Oakwood Cemetery in the Mayo vault.
Co-op Funeralcare commissioned a YouGov poll and reportedly found that 89% of the adults in the UK had never heard of the process, but nearly one-third said they would choose it for their own funeral after it was explained to them.
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