Have you been looking for away to dispose of human remains that respects both the deceased and Gaia? Look no further! Neil Bowdler at the BBC has the story:
A Glasgow-based company has installed its first commercial “alkaline hydrolysis” unit at a Florida funeral home.
The unit by Resomation Ltd is billed as a green alternative to cremation and works by dissolving the body in heated alkaline water.
The facility has been installed at the Anderson-McQueen funeral home in St Petersburg, and will be used for the first time in the coming weeks. It is hoped other units will follow in the US, Canada and Europe.
The makers claim the process produces a third less greenhouse gas than cremation, uses a seventh of the energy, and allows for the complete separation of dental amalgam for safe disposal.
Mercury from amalgam vaporised in crematoria is blamed for up to 16% of UK airborne mercury emissions, and many UK crematoria are currently fitting mercury filtration systems to meet reduced emission targets.
“Resomation was developed in response to the public’s increasing environmental concerns,” company founder Sandy Sullivan told BBC News. “It gives them that working third choice, which allows them to express those concerns in a very positive and I think personal way.”
A Close-up of the Resomator The Resomator can dissolve the body tissue in under three hours, say its makersThe installation was only made possible after the state legislature in Florida approved the use of the technology, one of seven US states in which the process has now been legalised.
The system works by submerging the body in a solution of water and potassium hydroxide which is pressurised to 10 atmospheres and heated to 180C for between two-and-a-half and three hours.
Body tissue is dissolved and the liquid poured into the municipal water system. Mr Sullivan, a biochemist by training, says tests have proven the effluent is sterile and contains no DNA, and poses no environmental risk.
The bones are then removed from the unit and processed in a “cremulator”, the same machine that is used to crush bone fragments following cremation into ash. Metals including mercury and artificial joints and implants are safely recovered.
The machine is patented in Europe with patents pending in other countries.
Catch that in the middle? The “effluent” is put into the municipal water system… but don’t worry it has no DNA and is completely sterile. Water is people! City water is made of people!
I can’t help but think of they Monty Python “Undertaker’s Sketch”– “We can bury her, burn her, or dump her.” Later on it turns out they are cannibals, and “if you change your mind, we can dig a grave and you can throw up in it.”
I remember that sketch!
I’m sure Resomation Ltd is a subsiduary of Soylent Corp. The “green” alternative is a “dead” give away.
I am sure you are right, Matt. It has the “green” logo right on it and the “green” control panel. Fritz is going to freak, he has known it was coming for years.
Soylent Brown, my dear…Soylent Brown!
I shall never be known as “a(e)ffluent” in any regard, or spelling!
No, fritz, not Soylent brown, Soylent Clear. You could be drunk, sweated out or otherwise disposed of and recycled.
When I read the part of going into the municipal water system that was my first thought, as apparently Floyd and everyone else. Hey, we’re just people. Nothing special about us, just more refuse for recycling. Gaia, who will definately not survive forever thanks to the Sun, is somehow more important then man. Who could theoretically outlast the Earth thanks to space travel. Moral and Religious aspects aside for the moment. Ugh. Just a natural consequence of Progressivism.
As far the the DNA though, at 180 degrees C for that amount of time none of it will survive. DNA starts to denature at 90 degrees and only takes a few seconds. At that temperature and pressure it has no chance. Even then, potassium hydroxide is extremely caustic and will rip apart the bonds in your DNA. If you are a criminal and need to dipose of body and leave no evidence behind, this is the device you want.
When I go, I want to leave as big a carbon footprint as is humanly possible…on Al Gore’s lawn!
This reminds me a bit of Waterworld.
So, without ashes, or a corpse, what do the loved ones have to put in an urn on the mantle, or bury with a marker? Carbon credits in the name of the deceased, framed in a gold plaque?
A lapel pin?
Possibly, and in San Francisco, a pinky ring!
You seem to know a lot about how “things” are in San Francisco.
Just been around here long enough to hear things…that is all! I swear!
Pinky swear?
Oh, all right…pinky swear!
I think we need to drop this subject right now before everybody starts to think us really weird!
Starts?! We’re already there, baby.
Takes one to know one…with a lollipop, Baby!
Yummy, a lollipop!
Girls never give me lollipops, Fritz. I’m going to have to come visit so you can teach me the ways of the force, master Yoda.
If you want to learn the “force” Doc, you must master the control of beans. They are a powerful adversary that takes monumental control capability!