Options After Dying
It’s gonna happen. You and I and the person across from you at the diner: we are all gonna die. It’s only a matter of time.
For a few years now, one of my jobs has been as a Medical Examiner Investigator (MEI). The more I assist families in the wake of the death of a loved one, and the closer I get to my own Date of Demise, the more I ponder what my aftermath can be like in terms of the body my soul will be leaving behind. As an advocate for sound environmental practices such as minimizing the human race’s carbon foot print, recycling, and clean air and water initiatives, I have long wrestled with this important detail.
If your experience has been with embalming so we can remain lifelike when we are not, giant (expensive) caskets, and hermetically-sealed vaults, let me guide you in a different direction. Or, if you have always said, “just cremate me,” there is this: why spend your lifetime minimizing the use of fossil fuels by freezing all winter with a lowered thermostat, only to burn up all those BTUs doing away with your body after you are dead?!
Thankfully, there seem to be some emerging options that you might like to know about. I hope those offered prompt you to do some research and discover how you can have the end for yourself and your loved ones that feels most right. These processes still make possible the death rituals and memorializations that are important parts of the grief and loss process.
Alkaline Hydrolysis is actually what occurs as nature’s course when a body is laid to rest directly in the soil. It involves a combination of gentle water flow, temperature, and alkalinity which are used to accelerate the breakdown of organic materials. Alkaline hydrolysis was developed and patented in 1888 by a farmer named Amos Herbert Hanson. The first commercial system was installed in 1993 at Albany Medical College to dispose of human cadavers and was increasingly adopted by universities and hospitals for donated body programs after that. The funeral industry started using alkaline hydrolysis in 2011, starting in Ohio and Florida. Legalizing the process for human use has been slow, but pet crematories have adopted the process widely. The pace of approval for human use is now beginning to pick up. [Source: cremationassociation.org/page/alkalinehydrolysis accessed September 11, 2021] For a visual depiction of alkaline hydrolysis, take a look at this brief YouTube video: youtube.com/watch?v=iTD0GltXB50
A newer process inaugurated recently in the Pacific Northwest is more reminiscent of composting. A process (called “Recompose” by the funeral home using it) converts bodies into soil that looks a lot like mulch or wood chips. The “dead body is broken down through a process known as natural organic reduction by placing the corpse in a reusable vessel, covering it with wood chips and aerating it, which creates an environment for microbes and essential bacteria. The body, over a span of 30 days, is fully transformed into soil. [Source: religionnews.com/2021/02/10/recompose-nations-first-human-composting-business-is-now-open-in-the-state-of-washington/] It literally recycles carbon atoms from the organisms that have been housing them back out to the atmosphere where they once came from, in what is known as the “carbon cycle.” It is one new way to save upwards of 1 metric ton of carbon dioxide emissions over cremation or conventional burial.
Here is a little more perspective: “Having a body cremated may seem like a sustainable burial, but in most cases it's not great for the environment. In cremation, everything is burned into ash, including bone and medical implants. That can lead to the release of harmful pollutants. In the UK, for instance, cremation contributes to 16% of all mercury pollution. And as The Atlantic has reported, cremation takes about two SUV-tanks worth of gas to cremate a single body. Alkaline hydrolysis, on the other hand, requires only an eighth of that energy, Gizmodo reports. A traditional burial can affect the environment as well, since embalming chemicals can leach into the ground where a person is buried. Alkaline hydrolysis doesn't require such chemicals.” [Source: businessinsider.com/alkaline-hydrolysis-an-eco-friendly-burial-technique-2017-8, accessed September 13, 2021]
No surprise, the funeral home industry tends not to be terribly thrilled about the impact to their bottom line by the way things are trending. Building a greener complexion for the death conversation has inevitably involved shifting some long-standing rules and regulations. Luckily, there are people already fighting that good fight. For more comprehensive information on this topic, take a look at the Green Burial Council’s website at greenburialcouncil.org. You and I are welcome to join their amplifying chorus!
Death is certain. But you most certainly do not need to meekly follow the social habits of recent times when body disposal took a hard turn away from the natural processes of returning to the earth and nourishing it with our remains. I invite you at least to think about it. And take care—most of all, I prefer having you around to enrich your world and mine.
