Concerned about the environmental impact of your burial or cremation? Well, don't die. But if you must, consider a third option: have your corpse dissolved. In a procedure called alkaline hydrolysis, the deceased is put into a stainless-steel cylinder resembling a pressure cooker; application of lye, 300-degree heat, and 60 pounds of pressure per inch produces a brown, syrupy liquid that can be unceremoniously dumped down the drain. (It also leaves a dry residue that could be buried or displayed in an urn on the mantel, for those who wish.) The procedure has been used in the U.S. for over a decade to deal with animal carcasses, but hasn't found popularity -- or legality -- in funeral homes. But thanks to its environmental advantages, it could yet take off. "It's not often that a truly game-changing technology comes along in the funeral service," the newsletter Funeral Service Insider exclaimed recently, but "we might have gotten a hold of one."
Lye and Let Die
Dissolving your corpse is the green way to go 12
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Posted 12:18 PM on 9 May 2008
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Lindsay Posted 7:03 am
09 May 2008
Alkaline hydrolysis grosses me out, but I'd consider it if I knew it was environmentally sound.
My biggest question concerns what happens when this human reduction is poured down the drain in large quantities. First of all, how much liquid would an average-sized human corpse generate?
Oh yeah, and somehow, I don't believe that a "coffee-colored liquid [with] the consistency of motor oil and a strong ammonia smell" can be "safely poured down the drain."
Research, please.
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Pangolin Posted 8:08 am
09 May 2008
Just think, instead of polluting a chunk of ground you could fuel a tractor and provide fertilizer for a small bed of greens. You could even be a few rose bushes and a drive to your local museum.
Why waste it?
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TheSSG Posted 8:52 am
09 May 2008
There was one where a sapling was planted over your corpse, and the decomposition would help fuel its growth.
Many of these cemeteries are also reforesting projects, or conservation projects.
No heat, no "coffee like" ooze...seems easier...and better for the planet...
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caniscandida Posted 3:49 pm
11 May 2008
This subject has in fact been discussed before.
The involvement of chemicals and high heat, and all the other effort, should not strike anyone as being particularly enviro-friendly, however much of an improvement it may be over a steel casket.
I like very much the ideas of Pangolin, and TheSSG; though I have metaphysical objections to the latter's phrasing, "YOU are wrapped," and "over YOU." But, let us be clear, YOU are no longer contained in that bit of primate hide any longer.
I myself would like to be got rid of by disposal on a beach at low tide, one with lots of crabs, mollusks, echinoderms, pecking birds and strong-beaked fishies. But my executors would have to be cagey, to avoid all kinds of legal complications ...
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bravedeer Posted 10:23 pm
11 May 2008
The environmental choice is to be buried, not in a coffin of course.
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javaearth Posted 12:31 am
12 May 2008
When I all old and bitter (well, actually I am bitter now, but anyway). I want to have party. Eat all the foods I love, play my fav. music, and just have a laugh. Dance a bit, laugh at all the be left in some remote mountain place, pop a few pills and die. My body will be eaten by animals. Now you can't be greener than that!
Now if I am off'd in some accident, I want to be cermated. - But I am really hoping for the mountain theme!
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jennann429 Posted 1:32 am
12 May 2008
I'm with TheSSG on this one, let your wordly body feed the earth from which it came! Why add chemicals to turn it into goo when it'll do that all on its own with a little help from Mother Nature?
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earlysnows Posted 4:46 am
12 May 2008
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Tasermons Partner Posted 5:01 am
12 May 2008
Innovative, I think. It also makes for a good dive spot.
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jeanh Posted 6:52 am
12 May 2008
Natural decomposition has been the age old way to complete the cycle of life -- this returns nutrients to the environment and in my opinion is much more peaceful way to be remembered by your loved ones than being dissolved in caustic liquid.
I have doubts as to how environmentally friendly this process really is. It would take significant amts of energy to heat large volumes of lye with a person in it and the sheer volumes of lye dumped down the drain would be damaging for the environment in itself. I work in a biology laboratory, and we are not allowed to dump any volume (not to mention gallons and gallons) of extremely basic or acidic compounds down the drain without neutralizing the liquid first.
Isn't it just easier and more humane to just let nature take its course?
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turanga leela Posted 7:33 am
12 May 2008
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Tasermons Partner Posted 8:28 am
12 May 2008
May work with worms, maggots, and other decomposers, though.
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