Alkaline Hydrolysis: Green Burial or Scientific Nightmare?
(credit: www.orderofthegooddeath.com )
Given the numerous environmental issues overshadowing the 21st century, learning how to live sustainably is a generally accepted responsibility. But what about learning how to die sustainably? Traditional burials take up valuable space. Cremation requires lots of energy, often supplied by fossil fuel, and fills the air with carbon dioxide. Alternatives do exist, but one such “green burial” option may unsettle those with a weak stomach and a distaste for science fiction. Alkaline hydrolysis, a new disposition method referred to misleadingly as “flameless” or “bio” cremation, involves no burning whatsoever; instead, the remains are dissolved in a pressurized vat of potassium hydroxide. Pictures of this are available to the public on the Bio-response Solutions website. The only residue is Bone ash, which is given to the family after all the soft tissue (muscle, skin, organs, etc.) has become a liquid and is flushed out into the water system.
Bone remains given back to family (credit: www.bioresponsefuneral.com )
You can see why this would make some people squeamish. The more sensational articles on alkaline hydrolysis describe the liquefied remains as “brown” and “syrupy”, with a consistency like motor oil. Critics with more serious concerns wonder about the potential ramifications of pouring the remains into a municipal water system. No one likes the idea of having a loved one mixed in with the drinking water. But these concerns arise more from the grisly aspect of the process than from any substantiated claim. The remains are PH neutral and, as Josh Slocum of the Funeral Consumers Alliance reminds us, more innocuous than the body fluids, waste material, and formaldehyde from more traditional embalming that we already put down the drain.
Alkaline hydrolysis, a new disposition method referred to misleadingly as “flameless” or “bio” cremation, involves no burning whatsoever; instead, the remains are dissolved in a pressurized vat of potassium hydroxide.
This disposition method is nothing new or elaborate. In fact, it merely accelerates the same decomposition that occurs in nature. Remains buried in soil, which is often already high in alkalies, decomposes by the same process at a much slower rate. Food digested in the body undergoes this process as well. Moreover, the environmental and economic advantages to alkaline hydrolysis are impossible to ignore: according to the funeral resource Village Memorial, the process “incurs 20 times less CO2 emissions vs. average cremation. It is energy efficient, using 1/10th the energy per body versus cremation. It also allows for the possible salvage of surgically-inserted foreign items in the body, such as pacemakers, replacement joints and pins, which remain sterile and intact for recovery and possible re-use. Additionally, for the budget conscious, it is 3 to 5 times less expensive than cremation.”
credit: thor_mark
Yet even with the benefits of this process, it is not catching on very quickly. Only seven states have legalized it, including California in 2012. Among those who oppose the process, the Catholic Church is the most outspoken. They consider the process disrespectful to the remains and they are generally adverse to the aesthetically distressing nature of the process.
(credit: kelly.sikkema)
Part of this unease may be due to the fact that we don’t know what to call this process. “Alkaline hydrolysis” sounds too scientific for such a ceremonial process, but it is misrepresentation to call it cremation. The company Biocremation isn’t very accurate. While the impulse to use familiar terms to describe novel phenomena is an understandable approach to introducing this somewhat unpalatable process, funeral consumers should not be deceived by such language. A Scottish company has coined the term “Resomation” as an undoubtedly softer title, but as a patented process, it may not include all types of alkaline hydrolysis. Distinctions should be clear for those in grief. Then what should we call this new process? Cremation is out of the question. No satisfying name has yet been found.
Remains buried in soil, which is often already high in alkalies, decomposes by the same process at a much slower rate. Food digested in the body undergoes this process as well.
But resistance is still productive, since it creates a space in which to question new technologies rather than accept them wholesale. For example, think about which resources go into producing the chemicals that are used in Resomation. Even if it has a smaller carbon footprint than cremation, it can’t be completely “green”. It is organizations such as the Catholic Church that root us in tradition and draw our attention to what may be lost or at risk with the adoption of new technology. The resolution of these issues can keep us responsible and accountable as we explore better ways to deal with end of life remains.
Is Resomation the future of burial practice? Will we come to accept the process? If so, will it make us loose any sensitivity for how we view the human body? We look forward to your comments below.
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Interesting article but I would like to point out a few points – you say:
‘…serious concerns wonder about the potential ramifications of pouring the remains into a municipal water system. No one likes the idea of having a loved one mixed in with the drinking water. ” The ‘remains’ or effluent/by product is actually discharged in the sewer system, not the drinking system.
As for the Catholic Church opposing alkaline hydrolysis, a very well written article by Sr. Renée Mirkes, O.S.F., Ph.D., the director of the Center for NaProEthics, the ethics division of the Pope Paul VI Institute, in Omaha, Nebraska, titled: The Mortuary Science of Alkaline Hydrolysis – Is It Ethical? is well worth reading as it adjudicates the moral validity of
persistent objections to alkaline hydrolysis by the Catholic Church. You would find it very interesting.
And finally, Resomation is not the term to use for alkaline hydrolysis, neither is bio cremation, green cremation, flameless cremation and so on…. its alkaline hydrolysis. Cremation is also incorrect – its incineration. The act of using ‘fire’ to cause ‘burning and combustion of a human or animal’ ….
There truly is no pretty way to dispose of a body – I quote from the article referenced above:
‘The by-products of alkaline hydrolysis, cremation, and burial are grossly similar: the body’s blood and soft tissue are reduced to liquid, and the skeleton is reduced to ashes. In all three methods of final disposition, the aqueous portion of the remains becomes, ultimately, a part of our soil and water ecosystem—in burial through seepage, in cremation by way of rain, and in alkaline hydrolysis through waste-treatment processing.’
If you read this carefully, which one appears most environmentally friendly? ‘Seepage’ from burial hits our water tables; cremation by way of rain is the pollution from the chimneys returning to earth and alkaline hydrolysis goes to the waste-treatment processing, where all sewage is treated.
Yes all new technology is scary – and when it involves death – even more so. But as you say, people are talking about it and the debate is a healthy, democratic discussion. Slowly the technology is catching on. The May Clinic has had a unit since 2005 and now that a low pressure system is available from Bio Response Solutions, the cost of purchase is much lower than the high pressure ‘Resomation’ unit sold by Matthews Cremation in FL. It is catching on quickly in Canada as well.
Thank you for the great article!!
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My questions still remain. For instance, what if a crime had been committed to the person who died, but is a cold case for years? Then, something appears later that requires a body to be exumed for further investigation, which has happened over the decades. What then? Does the criminal get of “scotfree?”
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Same thing that happens if a victim of a crime is cremated, or is buried and decomposes over time. These aren’t new problems…
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