...Just Flush Those Corpses Down The Drain!?
Originally from my blog WindUpRubberFinger - 07/11/10
Environmentalism has reached a new low. Just when you thought the Eco-Nuts had gone too far; now there's a company in Belgium that offers to have your loved one "dissolved" instead of buried or cremated.
Resomator S750
Under the process, known as resomation, bodies are treated in a steel chamber with potassium hydroxide at high pressure and a temperature of 180c (350f).
The raised pressure and temperature means the body reaches a similar end point as in standard cremation β just bones left to be crushed up β in two to three hours.
Six states in America have passed legislation to allow resomation and the Scottish company behind the technology says it is in talks to allow the process in the UK.
Although the ashes can be recycled in waste systems, the residue from the process can also be put in urns and handed over to relatives of the dead like normal ashes from crematorium farewells.
Resomation Ltd was formed in east Glasgow in 2007 and has been in talks with the UK government about using the technology in Britain.
To think that cremation is causing a negative environmental is ridiculous. People have been burned for thousands of years and now, for some reason, it's a problem? What other institution is the next to be attacked in the name of the environment?
People are free to do whatever they want with their deceased loved ones; however, I think that it's a little creepy to base this decision on carbon dioxide output.
Whether it is "really" more eco-friendly or not would depend on whether you think that CO2 is going to destroy the environment. One question would be, how much carbon emissions were produced in the creation of the potassium hydroxide and its shipment? How much energy is required to heat up the "rather large" Resomator to 350ΒΊF for 3 hours? This sounds just like the Toyota Prius all over again. While the Prius might use less fuel than a regular car; the manufacturing process is less environmentally friendly than that of a conventional car. This makes used cars more environmentally friendly than the Prius. The environmental impact of cremation, as a whole, would logically be less than resomation because the cremators are already manufactured and in place.
Here's a link to the company who pioneered this method of postmortem human disposal. The process is known as Resomation.
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I've decided I feel a certain type of way about this and I don't even want to be cremated, like can you imagine how this is going over in India along the Ganges? Why!? You're right it's a Prius.
I have a close friend who's a fireman. He doesn't want to be cremated, for obvious reasons. I don't want to be cremated or dissolved. It's disgusting and then people sometimes boast about tossing the ashes in flower beds. Yeah, that's Mom there, fertilizing your tomatoes or roses.
The fireman told me he had a friend who worked in a funeral home. One day the friend asked if he could lend a hand, busting up the bones of a cremated person. They took mallets and spent a little while bashing the charred bones and then went off to lunch. That was Mom there getting hammered by a couple of young guys. Nice.
Contrast with my Muslim in-laws, who wash that body, women washing women, the men washing men, then wrapping in a white shroud after camphor rubbed on the cleaned body. The body then placed in coffin or vault for burial. I helped wash my mother in-law and it was the best way to honor her and say good bye.
Interesting that the countries that resisted the Nazi program of euthanasia of mentally retarded kids and others are now fully on board with euthanasia of any special needs person, including Grandma. Netherlands, Belgium, all on board the utilitarian train. Dissolving is just as disgusting as cremation.
Finally, creating a pressure chamber with high enough pressure so that a mere 350F will dissolve human flesh in just a few hours is going to require a lot of energy. All for the climate? "The Climateβ’οΈ" is laughing.