Funeral future ‘dissolving the dead’

There are the media headlines of ‘flushing granny down the drain’.

Canterbury University associate professor of Sociology Ruth McManus

Dead people’s bodies could be dissolved in New Zealand instead of being burned or buried within the next two or three years.

A Christchurch company is planning to import a $600,000 Resomator machine, which 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 akaline hydrolosis, 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. This is accepted in the US.

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 on native bush to nourish plants.

‘‘I think that would be a wonderful thing and I think people would like that.’’

Her plan is to put the Resomator in a sustainable green building in Christchurch surrounded by native bush with filtration plants using the recycled waste water ‘‘and ideally a bird sanctuary’’. The site has not been identified yet.

The environmental benefits of the dissolving process are impressive.

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 Death and Dying in New Zealand.

McManus believes the world is on the cusp of moving to this new

technology once the old cremation infrastructure is ready for replacement.

She likens it to the electric car revolution. Suddenly they are everywhere and so are their charging stations.

‘‘It is part of a move to more environmentally aware and responsible technologies,’’ she says.

‘‘I see it as a use of really high technology that takes us away from a heavy emission-based practice. Cremation has served its purpose incredibly well, but new technologies enable new things. You still have the remains, you still have the funeral.’’

She agrees the fluid is the psychological problem, but says it shouldn’t be.

‘‘There are the media headlines of ‘flushing granny down the drain’. But when you embalm a body, the bodily fluids, the blood, go down the drain. Which to me is kind of icky if you want to think about it like that.’’

‘‘The fluid left over [from a water cremation] is less of a link to the person than the blood that is run down the drain in embalming. ’’

McManus points out that when someone is burned, the loved one is dispersed as smoke that everyone can breathe in.

And the wastewater is good for plants unlike cremation ashes.

She says water cremation does the same job as microbes do when a body is buried. It breaks it down to its component parts.

It’s just the Resomator does it in three hours instead of years, plus it removes all contamination and toxins.

McManus says people who are really into recycling could even consider that things like replacement hips joints are left behind in pristine sterile condition.