Saskatchewan approves new method for funeral homes to dispose of bodies
By The Canadian Press - Wednesday, November 28, 2012 - 0 Comments
REGINA – Saskatchewan has approved a new and greener way to deal with bodies….
REGINA – Saskatchewan has approved a new and greener way to deal with bodies.
It’s called alkaline hydrolysis and the province is the first in Canada to give it a try.
Todd Lumbard of Speers Funeral Home in Regina says the end results are a lot like cremation.
But instead of burning the body, it is put into a pressurized chamber along with an alkaline solution.
That reduces the body to liquid and bone.
The liquid is dumped down the drain or flushed away and the powdered bone is returned to the family the same way ashes would be.
“With regular cremation you do have smoke going out a smoke stack and more and more there’s environmental concern about that,” said Lumbard.
Alkaline hydrolysis has a much smaller carbon footprint than cremation so it is seen as a more environmentally friendly option.
“You have a different process with the liquid going into the drain, but it’s not smoke going into the air,” said Lombard.
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Going green after death
By Emily Senger - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 at 6:30 AM - 0 Comments
Saskatchewan has adopted a new, greener burial method. Will the ‘ick factor’ keep it from catching on?
Joseph H. Wilson
When a loved one dies there are usually two options: burial or cremation. Saskatchewan has added a third to the list that’s been billed as a greener way to dispose of the dead. For those wanting to keep track of their environmental impact into the afterlife, the carbon footprint of the process is 90 per cent less than that of flame cremation. And no chemicals are released into the air.
The procedure, called alkaline hydrolysis, uses a machine to immerse the body in a solution of water and an alkaline chemical—otherwise known as lye. The water is heated and machines add pressure. Over two to 12 hours the body disintegrates, leaving behind two by-products: bone fragments, similar to the ashes from flame cremation, and a sterile liquid solution, which, if the local municipality permits, can be flushed down the drain.
While the Funeral and Cremation Services Council of Saskatchewan has approved alkaline hydrolysis, no one has installed a machine yet, says chairman Todd Lumbard. “People don’t know much about it, so they’re not demanding it,” he says. There’s also the question of the “ick factor,” as one Saskatchewan funeral director told CTV News. Continue…
