Funeral future ‘dissolving the dead’
Dead people’s bodies could be dissolved in New Zealand within the next two or three years instead of being burned or buried.
A Christchurch company is planning to import a $600,000 Resomator machine that liquefies bodies.
The system’s backers say it is a much more environmentally friendly and sustainable method than burial or cremation.
Public acceptance of bodies being liquefied and what happens to that liquid is the big problem.
Water Cremation Aotearoa New Zealand spokeswoman Debbie Richards says it is neither legal nor illegal to dissolve bodies in New Zealand at the moment.
But she is expecting the go-ahead to come over the next few years and is planning around that.
A recent Law Commission report recommended changing the Cremations Regulations Act 1973 to make it flexible enough to allow for alternative methods such as water cremation ‘‘which may enter New Zealand in the future’’.
Water cremation, also called alkaline hydrolysis, is legal in Canada and the United States. The process has been stalled in Britain by water authorities not allowing the wastewater to be disposed in the wastewater system.
The Resomator is a pressurised chamber. The body goes in it with a diluted alkaline solution and is rapidly heated. Within three hours all that is left is an inert, brown, slightly alkaline liquid and porous white bones that can easily be crushed to a white powder similar to baking soda.
The wastewater is inert and has no DNA, and is suitable for flushing into the usual wastewater system.
The white bone dust can be given to the family as ashes.
Richards says while there is nothing wrong with flushing the fluid away, she understands why people don’t like the thought of it.
That’s why she is exploring a way it can be recycled and used to nourish plants.
Her plan is to put the Resomator in a sustainable green building in Christchurch surrounded by native bush with filtration plants using the recycled wastewater ‘‘and ideally a bird sanctuary’’. The site has not been identified yet.
The Resomator uses only 14 per cent of the massive amount of energy that a burning in a cremator needs. There’s no need for a tall chimney and there are no harmful emissions from burning the embalming fluid or mercury in teeth fillings. Canterbury University associate professor of Sociology Ruth McManus welcomes the new technique.
She talks about the benefits of body dissolution in the recently published book in New Zealand.