Trendsurfing: The organic funeral (The Times)
David Rowan
You recycle your elderflower-wine bottles, compost your fair-trade carrot peel, and read The Ecologist by low-energy light-bulb. But before you disappear into a vapour cloud of environmental sanctimony, have you considered how you'll dispose of your body once it has finished with you?
The funeral industry has been facing a few environmental challenges lately, what with all that embalming fluid leaching into the soil, not to mention the carbon dioxide emissions from a few hundred thousand annual cremations. The ecology movement has been proselytising its biodegradable alternatives for a while, typically amounting to woodland burial in a recycled-paper coffin. Now, though, technological progress has brought a new buzz to the notion of "organic" pollution-free human disposal. So meet the liveliest trend in death - freeze-dried human recycling.
You might want to finish your breakfast before reading on. Here goes. The new technique is called "promession", and it involves freezing the corpse to -18 degrees Celsius before placing it briefly into liquid nitrogen at a rather colder -196. This little dip leaves the body so brittle that sound-wave vibrations, passed through it, cause it to decompose into a powder. The water which makes up two-thirds of the body is then evaporated away, and any metal parts, especially toxic mercury fillings, are separated out. The "organic" dry powder that remains can be placed in a small biodegradable coffin made from corn starch and left in the ground to become compost a few months later. That compost, ideally, will feed a plant that your loved ones nurture in your memory.
The idea emerged in Sweden, where it has been championed by Susanne Wiigh-Mäsak, a marine biologist who previously set up an organic-food business. Through her company, Promessa, Wiigh-Mäsak now wants to educate us about the benefits of turning ourselves into mulch. "Today's burial traditions conceal reality," she says, encouraging us to forget that death contributes to new life. By contrast, promession offers "a dignified and ethically correct way of being remembered".
Government is beginning to listen. The authorities in Stockholm have been keen to encourage promession as an ecological alternative to standard burial or cremation; the first specially constructed "promatorium" is scheduled to be built next year. The idea is also being considered in Britain, where local councils are under pressure to reduce mercury emissions. Crewe and Nantwich council in Cheshire has been discussing the practicalities, as has the Scottish Executive.
Will it catch on? Green burial remains a tiny niche in a highly profitable industry, and established undertakers aren't quite ready for the last rites. Still, environmental concerns, not to mention a lack of graveyard space, can only boost demand for alternative ways to say those final farewells. There are already businesses trading in Britain that offer to turn your loved one's ashes into "high quality" diamonds (LifeGem charges up to £13,450) or synchronised fireworks displays (from £1,500, according to Heavens Above Fireworks). You could even pay a Texan company, Space Services Inc, $995 per gram to blast your mortal remains into orbit. That would certainly minimise your earthly footprint, although we can't answer about the environmental impact of the rocket fuel.
That's the beauty of the free market. Whether you want to be freeze-dried or carbonised and turned into a necklace, someone somewhere is ready to take your booking. You may not be around to enjoy your purchase in person, but hey - that's life.
(The Times Magazine, November 12 2005)
. . . AND READ MORE TRENDSURFING COLUMNS HERE . . .
You recycle your elderflower-wine bottles, compost your fair-trade carrot peel, and read The Ecologist by low-energy light-bulb. But before you disappear into a vapour cloud of environmental sanctimony, have you considered how you'll dispose of your body once it has finished with you?
The funeral industry has been facing a few environmental challenges lately, what with all that embalming fluid leaching into the soil, not to mention the carbon dioxide emissions from a few hundred thousand annual cremations. The ecology movement has been proselytising its biodegradable alternatives for a while, typically amounting to woodland burial in a recycled-paper coffin. Now, though, technological progress has brought a new buzz to the notion of "organic" pollution-free human disposal. So meet the liveliest trend in death - freeze-dried human recycling.
You might want to finish your breakfast before reading on. Here goes. The new technique is called "promession", and it involves freezing the corpse to -18 degrees Celsius before placing it briefly into liquid nitrogen at a rather colder -196. This little dip leaves the body so brittle that sound-wave vibrations, passed through it, cause it to decompose into a powder. The water which makes up two-thirds of the body is then evaporated away, and any metal parts, especially toxic mercury fillings, are separated out. The "organic" dry powder that remains can be placed in a small biodegradable coffin made from corn starch and left in the ground to become compost a few months later. That compost, ideally, will feed a plant that your loved ones nurture in your memory.
The idea emerged in Sweden, where it has been championed by Susanne Wiigh-Mäsak, a marine biologist who previously set up an organic-food business. Through her company, Promessa, Wiigh-Mäsak now wants to educate us about the benefits of turning ourselves into mulch. "Today's burial traditions conceal reality," she says, encouraging us to forget that death contributes to new life. By contrast, promession offers "a dignified and ethically correct way of being remembered".
Government is beginning to listen. The authorities in Stockholm have been keen to encourage promession as an ecological alternative to standard burial or cremation; the first specially constructed "promatorium" is scheduled to be built next year. The idea is also being considered in Britain, where local councils are under pressure to reduce mercury emissions. Crewe and Nantwich council in Cheshire has been discussing the practicalities, as has the Scottish Executive.
Will it catch on? Green burial remains a tiny niche in a highly profitable industry, and established undertakers aren't quite ready for the last rites. Still, environmental concerns, not to mention a lack of graveyard space, can only boost demand for alternative ways to say those final farewells. There are already businesses trading in Britain that offer to turn your loved one's ashes into "high quality" diamonds (LifeGem charges up to £13,450) or synchronised fireworks displays (from £1,500, according to Heavens Above Fireworks). You could even pay a Texan company, Space Services Inc, $995 per gram to blast your mortal remains into orbit. That would certainly minimise your earthly footprint, although we can't answer about the environmental impact of the rocket fuel.
That's the beauty of the free market. Whether you want to be freeze-dried or carbonised and turned into a necklace, someone somewhere is ready to take your booking. You may not be around to enjoy your purchase in person, but hey - that's life.
(The Times Magazine, November 12 2005)
. . . AND READ MORE TRENDSURFING COLUMNS HERE . . .
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