New Enviro-Friendly Cremations: Being Freeze-Dried and Smashed to Bits

Awhile back we brought you the exciting news of eco-friendly cremations and coffins made of recycled cardboard. Now in another bid to become more environmentally friendly crematoriums in the UK are looking at ways of freeze-drying and dissolving bodies. It must be Al Gore-approved, I assume.

Being freeze dried and smashed into little pieces sounds like the stuff of sci-fi horror movies.

But it is one of two methods of dealing with our dearly departed that could soon be available from a funeral director near you.

And in keeping with sci-fi’s often chilling view of the future, the details are not for the squeamish.

The process – called promession, or cryomation – involves using liquid nitrogen to chill the body to -196c, leaving it so brittle that it can be ‘fragmented’ on a vibrating mat.

A magnet then removes metal objects such as fillings and artificial limbs, leaving a sterile powder – giving a whole new meaning to ‘ashes to ashes, dust to dust’.

The second method is even more disturbing.

Known as resomation, it sees bodies placed in silk bags and submerged in an alkaline solution that has been heated to 160c. Flesh, organs and bones all dissolve under the onslaught, leaving behind a combination of green-brown fluid and white powder.

Sounds like fun.

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