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New / Non-Traditional Corpse Treatment & Interment Strategies

I heard a statement many years ago to the effect that "One of the first things any Britisher learns is to never dig too deeply in the back garden, because you're likely to run into people."

Any truth to this one? I suppose there might be in any land inhabited for at least 750,000 years.
 
I heard a statement many years ago to the effect that "One of the first things any Britisher learns is to never dig too deeply in the back garden, because you're likely to run into people."

TBH I've never heard that phrase before but I can understand the theory behind it.

Locally, most of the estates and houses are built over old coal or limestone shafts, marlpools and landfill sites. If there were any ancient burial sites in the area they would have been disturbed long ago. Plus, the only thing of interest we ever found buried in our garden when I was a child, was a complete Ford Anglia - we could never figure out how the previous occupants got it into the back garden let alone the reasons behind burying it.

Recently though, my mother's sheltered accomodation underwent some renovations and building work. The site had originally been owned by the local diocese and during an excavation, builders stumbled across some graves that had been covered over with topsoil (probably when the place was originally built). As they were discovered next to her bedroom and being the cool grandma that she is, she took this in her stride when all the other residents were freaking out at the discovery.
 
This seems to fit here, even if we are only talking Ashes...

Loch ceremony for unclaimed ashes

The unclaimed ashes of 13 people have been scattered on Loch Ness after being held in the vaults of a funeral parlour for up to 40 years.

John Fraser and Son in Inverness had the remains of 17 people, but the ashes of four were collected following publicity about the ceremony.

Rev Douglas Clyne led a prayer before the ashes were scattered along with yellow flower petals from a cruiser.

Piper Calum Fraser played at the close of the ceremony.

Rev Clyne, formerly a minister at Fraserburgh Old Parish Church, said it had been an unusual occasion.

He said: "The remains were of 13 people unknown to us and perhaps only known by a very few.

"The setting of the loch and the weather were perfect."

The remains were of people who were cremated between 1968 and the 1990s, but not collected by relatives.

Those that were claimed were not named to protect the families' privacy.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/hig ... 431760.stm
 
Last year we were looking to buy a property in Shropshire near to Nesscliffe between Oswestry and Shrewsbury. we found what we all considered an ideal place, a Georgian "Gentleman's Residence" as the blurb said. It came with a good sized parcel of land over the lane opposite.

We had a number of other properties to see over the next few days but by the end of the week decided that this house was the one for us and went around it again to make sure before putting an offer in for it.

Then the bombshell the previous ocupents of the house were buried in the grounds. The husband had died some twenty years back and his wife had died some six months ago but both were buried, side by side in the land opposite the house.

This was not too off-putting as I had lived next door to a cemetry before, but what followed proved to be too much for the solicitors to handle. Some of the family wanted to keep the land, some wanted to sell it (to maximise the price) others wanted to disinter their parents and move them to another site down south. We wanted the land and a deal was brokered that the parents graves were to be left untouched and that the family would be allowed access (there were no marker stones or memorials, not even a tree) to the site.

In all this time we were not once contacted by any member of the family. We thought that it was all going through when everything went very quiet. Letters went unanswered, phone lines went dead, months past without our solicitors making any progress. Even the estate agents were at a loss.

We gave up in the end as we lost our buyer. The house is still, as far as we know, still on the market.
 
Thats shamefully sloppy

(but its not going to stop me getting buried in my garden)

Its not true everyones got bodies in the back garden, Im sad to dissilusion you, OTR

(ecept the Roman cemetry up the road)
 
Belgian undertakers plan to dissolve dead and flush them into sewage system
Belgian undertakers have drawn up plans to dissolve the corpses of the dead in caustic solutions and flush them into the sewage system.
Allan Hall, in Berlin
Published: 12:31PM BST 07 Jul 2010

The controversial new method is said to be less expensive and more environmentally friendly than running highly polluting crematoria or using up valuable land for graves.

The departed would go into the sewage systems of towns and cities and then be recycled in water processing plants.

The proposals are being studied by the EU and if approved, it would mean the procedure could be used across Europe.

However, opponents of the plans say it smacks of a Frankenstein callousness towards the dead and one survey in Belgium found many people found the idea "disturbing."

"The idea is for the deceased to be placed in a container with water and salts and then pressurised and after a little time, about two hours, mineral ash and liquid is left over," said a spokesman for the Flemish Association of Undertakers.

The European Commission is investigation whether the resulting liquid could safely be flushed into the sewage system. Authorities in the northern Belgian region have yet to decide whether to approve the process.

Six states in America – Maine, Colorado, Florida, Minnesota, Oregon, and Maryland have recently passed legislation that allow the process to be used.

Although experts insist that 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.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... ystem.html
 
A similar idea...

Dissolving your earthly remains will protect the Earth
by Wendy Zukerman
11:04 19 August 2010

Want to leave a light footprint on this Earth when you die? Perhaps you should consider "aquamation", a new eco-alternative to burial and cremation.

With land for burials in short supply and cremation producing around 150 kilograms of carbon dioxide per body – and as much as 200 micrograms of toxic mercury – aquamation is being touted as the greenest method for disposing of your mortal remains.

The corpse is placed into a steel container and potassium is added, followed by water heated to 93 °C. The flesh and organs are completely decomposed in 4 hours, leaving bones as the only solid remains.

This is similar to what's left after cremation, where the "ashes" are in fact bones hardened in the furnace and then crushed.

Aquamation uses only 10 per cent of the energy of a conventional cremation and releases no toxic emissions, says John Humphries, chief executive of Aquamation Industries in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, who developed the technology. The decomposition process, called alkaline hydrolysis, "simply speeds up the natural way that flesh decomposes in soil and water", he says.

Similar methods for decomposing corpses have been developed elsewhere, but they decompose corpses at much higher temperatures. For example, Resomation, based in Glasgow, UK, dissolves bodies in sodium hydroxide at 180 °C.

By decomposing pig carcasses at different water temperatures, Humphries found that the higher heat was unnecessary and that 93 °C was the most efficient temperature for body decomposition.

There are recycling possibilities too. Humphries says that aquamation, unlike cremation, will not destroy artificial implants such as hip replacements, allowing them to be reused. :? And after the body is decomposed, "the water is a fantastic fertiliser", he says.

Since his company began offering the process last month, 60 people in Australia have nominated aquamation for the disposal of their own corpse.

"This is a great initiative," says Barry Brook, a climate scientist at the University of Adelaide, South Australia. "It's easy to dismiss these small-scale technologies as trivial, but if you add enough small-scale solutions together they can add up to something meaningful."

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn1 ... earth.html
 
Crematorium considers dissolving bodies
A council-run crematorium is planning to carry out ''science-fiction'' funerals including freeze-drying and even dissolving dead bodies.
11:27AM GMT 03 Jan 2011

Cambridge City Crematorium have proposed a set of gruesome after-death arrangements – which they claim are more environmentally-friendly than traditional funerals.

Bosses have called for a 21st century ''commercial approach'' towards handling death and asked Cambridge City Council to let them use futuristic technologies.

Plans include using liquid nitrogen to chill a body to -196C, in a process called ''promession'' or ''cyromation'', when it is so brittle it can be fragmented and cleaned.
The body is then freeze-dried to remove moisture and the dust is used as environmentally-friendly compost or buried in a biodegradable casket.

Crematorium chiefs also want to place bodies in silk bags and submerge them in a 160C alkaline solution – which would dissolve them in around three hours.
The grisly procedure, called ''resomation'', dissolves all the organs and bones and leaves behind a green-brown liquid and white dust.
The liquid can be disposed in a number of different ways, including being flushed into the sewerage system.

Bereavement services manager Tracy Lawrence said the ''greener'' alternatives emit less pollution than traditional cremation.
She said: ''The plans proposes improvements to the quality and value of services to customers and envisages a modern, forward-looking service delivering good value and offering improved returns to future investment.''

The move is intended to tackle a lack of burial space and environmental concerns as 573lbs of carbon dioxide are released by each cremated corpse.

Six states in America have passed legislation to allow resomation and the Scottish company Resomation Ltd says it is in talks to allow the process in the UK.

Although the ashes can be recycled in waste systems, the residue can also be put in urns and handed over to relatives of the dead like normal ashes from crematoriums.

The council-run crematorium is also planning services for pets and flower shop to boost its income.

The crematorium has made £276,000 profit in the past five years but only picks up £44 per funeral service compared with up to £244 which can be charged by private operators.

Plans for a supersize cremator in Cambridge which could cope with wider coffins have been approved, while natural burials – in which bodies are interred at shallow depths in biodegradable containers – are already on offer.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... odies.html
 
What's wrong with the Soylent Green idea?
Darn sight cleaner and less wasteful than burning, freezing, burying etc.

;)
 
Dogs, cats and hamsters are all that the next tenants here will find!
 
New body 'liquefaction' unit unveiled in Florida funeral home
By Neil Bowdler, Science reporter, BBC News

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."

The 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.

Alkaline hydrolysis has been used in the past to dispose of medical cadavers and farm animals.
Last year, Aquamation Industries of Australia disposed of several bodies in Queensland using a rival alkaline hydrolysis machine. The same design was also used in Ohio earlier this year to dispose of 19 bodies until a state court shut it down, ruling that the process was not compliant with state law.

Mr Sullivan, whose company is now majority owned by Co-operative Funeralcare, claims his machine will provide a more efficient and quicker process. He also believes the equipment can rival cremation for cost, particularly given the expense of fitting mercury abatement systems.
He is now pressing for legislative changes in the UK to make alkaline hydrolysis a reality in Britain.

"The installations in the US will assist in that process because many of the leaders in the funeral industry are coming to see this unit functioning in the next couple of months once it's running," said Mr Sullivan.
"Once they see the unit running, see the process and how dignified, respectful, quiet and quick it is, they will help to push through legislative change in the UK."

etc...

Watch the full report on Newsnight on Tuesday 30 August 2011 at 22:30 BST on BBC Two, then afterwards on the BBC iPlayer and Newsnight website

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14114555
 
rynner2 said:
New body 'liquefaction' unit unveiled in Florida funeral home
By Neil Bowdler, Science reporter, BBC News

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.

etc...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14114555

New 'green cremation' machine opens in Minnesota
By Neil Bowdler, Health and science reporter, BBC News

A Scottish company has installed its second "Resomation" machine, in the US state of Minnesota.
The new facility in Stillwater, Minnesota, has already processed the remains of 20 individuals.

Resomation involves the dissolution of the deceased in an alkaline solution, and is billed in the US as "green cremation" or "flameless cremation".

A first machine was installed in Florida last year, and has been used on 10 bodies to date.

Sandy Sullivan, chief executive officer of Resomation Ltd, said the machine was running very efficiently after some fine-tuning.
"We've developed the process to a stage where it's running very well. I'm happy with where it is," he told BBC News.
"There has been refinement in software changes and pipe work changes to make it quieter and things like that, but the machine is running very smoothly."

Resomation involves the heating of the remains at some 300C in a pressurised vessel containing a potassium hydroxide solution.
The process takes around three hours and reduces the body to skeletal remains which are processed into a white powder which can be given to the family, like ash from crematoria.

Its makers claim it 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 a proportion of airborne mercury emissions worldwide.

The new machine has been fitted at the Bradshaw Celebration of Life Center in Stillwater. The first machine was installed at the Anderson-McQueen funeral home in St Petersburg, Florida.

Mr Sullivan is now hoping to secure contracts to supply 10-15 more machines in the US in the near future. Eight American states have so far passed legislation to permit the use of Resomation on their territories.

And while he says there is strong interest in the UK and Europe too - Resomation Ltd is a Glasgow-based subsidiary of Co-operative Funeralcare - similar enabling legislation is still needed.

Mr Sullivan said he has found using the "Resomator" on real human remains for the first time "surreal".
He says families have reacted well to the technology.
"They're very positive about the process. One family actually came into the Resomation room because they wanted to kiss the father goodbye.
"The daughter closed the door and started the process. They were absolutely delighted to be able to give their father an exit which they were convinced he would have absolutely loved, being very environmentally attuned."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19259804
 
Belgium and Netherlands plan to approve 'bio cremations'
Process using water, alkali, heat and pressure to break down body into liquid seen as environmentally friendly alternative to conventional cremations
By Martin Banks, Brussels
4:49PM BST 05 Oct 2014

Belgium and the Netherlands could soon become among the few countries in the world to allow 'bio cremations'.
The process, also known as chemical hydrolysis, is seen as an environmentally-friendly alternative for the disposal of dead bodies, but is currently only legal in parts of the United States and Canada.
It involves the human body being turned into a liquid rather than ashes, using a hot alkaline water-based solution under pressurised conditions.

The practice is currently illegal in Belgium but the Flemish funeral sector is pressing for a legal framework to allow bio cremations, while the Dutch parliament is looking at the possibility of doing the same.

In 2011, a Florida funeral home became the first in the world to perform a bio cremation, and about 3,000 people are believed to have chosen this method for the disposal of their remains in the US.

etc...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... tions.html
 
This is giving me a terrible mental image of that bit in Terry Gilliam's Brazil. :shock:
 
At least they don't feed the remains to dingos

A controversial law in Australia's New South Wales that allows graves to be "rented out" is going to a public inquiry, reports say.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the NSW government is going to review rentable graves, after they were introduced into the region's Cemeteries and Crematoria Act in June.

The act allows relatives to rent graves for 25-99 year periods if they can't afford the leasehold fees on their loved one's permanent grave.

The state library of New South Wales says that burials are an expensive business, and that a single grave can cost anywhere between A$2,970 and A$4,800 (£2,727; $3,506).

The existing law means the headstones of deceased relatives can be removed if relatives don't renew the deceased's plot of land within two years of expiration.

Their remains are dug up, and go into a communal ossuary or "bone room", with the original land then being re-let.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-45298239
 
At least they don't feed the remains to dingos

A controversial law in Australia's New South Wales that allows graves to be "rented out" is going to a public inquiry, reports say.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the NSW government is going to review rentable graves, after they were introduced into the region's Cemeteries and Crematoria Act in June.

The act allows relatives to rent graves for 25-99 year periods if they can't afford the leasehold fees on their loved one's permanent grave.

The state library of New South Wales says that burials are an expensive business, and that a single grave can cost anywhere between A$2,970 and A$4,800 (£2,727; $3,506).

The existing law means the headstones of deceased relatives can be removed if relatives don't renew the deceased's plot of land within two years of expiration.

Their remains are dug up, and go into a communal ossuary or "bone room", with the original land then being re-let.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-45298239
Old is new. Just ask Yorick, though he's a bit chapfallen.
 
From The Independent last December with a video to demonstrate how to liquefy a body in 3 hours ..

Council plan to liquefy bodies in eco-friendly alternative to cremation hits blockage
Severn Trent Water refuses crematorium’s request for a 'trade effluent' permit

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...fy-burial-chemical-eco-friendly-a8115321.html

This was supposed to be starting in my area some years ago but disappointingly, nothing came of it. The only change has been to build a larger cremation oven to accommodate the growing number of hugely obese customers.

Our shiny new plus-sized cremation oven is the only one for miles so funerals for more pinguid subjects have to travel here from the sticks.

One assumes it's the Funeral Director's call. A quick glance at the Loved One will tell that shrewd practitioner all they need to know.
 
This was supposed to be starting in my area some years ago but disappointingly, nothing came of it. The only change has been to build a larger cremation oven to accommodate the growing number of hugely obese customers.

Our shiny new plus-sized cremation oven is the only one for miles so funerals for more pinguid subjects have to travel here from the sticks.

One assumes it's the Funeral Director's call. A quick glance at the Loved One will tell that shrewd practitioner all they need to know.
I think I'd rather my body was liquefied than cremated or buried. I know it's ridiculous because when you're dead you're dead and you wouldn't know either way. The Mrs finds the idea of drowning terrifying and I'm terrified of being buried alive so if the doctors get it wrong and I'm still alive, being cremated would be horrific but quicker .. *brrrr!* .. given a choice, I'd be turned into fertiliser soup or cremated and my ash's would be mixed into the soil of a new tree, perhaps an apple tree so people could take shelter under what's left of me and even grab a something to eat if they want to. I mentioned that to my Mum when I was a youngster when we were having a similarly morbid conversation and she wasn't into that idea and was worried 'I' might get cut down! .. bless her :)
 
I'd be turned into fertiliser soup or cremated and my ash's would be mixed into the soil of a new tree, perhaps an apple tree so people could take shelter under what's left of me and even grab a something to eat if they want to.

That very process is available somewhere on this green earth.
 
There's a natural burial ground on the South Downs...

"Clayton Wood natural burial ground is set in 15 acres of countryside within the South Downs National Park. You can be part of a new English wood that will be protected from development.

Situated below the Jack and Jill Windmills, our beautiful site has various dedicated areas for full natural burial and cremated remains, as well as memorial scattering lawns, surrounded by native trees for future generations to enjoy."

https://www.claytonwood.co.uk/
 
As far as I know, this is the first US legislation to allow 'composting' as an interment option.
A bill in Washington state would allow the composting of human remains
Lawmakers in Washington state passed a bill Friday that would allow human remains to be composted.

If Gov. Jay Inslee signs Senate Bill 5001 into law, it will take effect May 1, 2020.

Right now, if a person dies in Washington, the body can only be cremated or buried, according to the bill's sponsor, state Sen. Jamie Pedersen. The bill gives people a third option for disposing of human remains: recomposition.

The process of recomposition essentially turns dead bodies into soil, a practice colloquially known as "human composting." According to the bill's language, this is the practice of "contained, accelerated conversion of human remains to soil." ...

FULL STORY: https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/20/us/washington-composting-dead-bodies/index.html
 
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