Recently, I wrote about a mushroom coffin that could provide an eco friendly burial option and as it turns out there may be something even better: Aquamation i.e. allowing your body to decompose in water.
Interesting Engineering explains:
“There are multiple alternatives to what’s going to happen to your remains after you’re dead. Everyone’s familiar with burials and cremation, but have you ever heard of aquamation?
Cremation is the method of disposition of a dead body through burning it. Cremation is often considered an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional burial practices. But burning dead bodies to ash requires immense energy to fuel the fire and pumps out millions of tons of carbon dioxide annually.
Another method called aquamation uses alkaline hydrolysis to dispose of human or animal remains instead of fire. The process is also known as biocremation, resomation, flameless cremation, and water cremation. Hailed as an eco-friendly alternative to cremation, this method uses a heated alkaline solution to break down the body, leaving behind only the skeleton.
During the process, the body is placed inside a pressurized vessel filled with a mixture of water and potassium hydroxide and heated to around 200 – 300°F (90 – 150°C). As the pressure in the container increases, the solution gently breaks organic matter over several hours instead of boiling. The process liquifies everything except for the bones, which are then dried in an oven and reduced to white dust, placed in an urn, and then given to relatives. Aquamation also leaves behind 32 percent more remains of the body compared to cremation.
According to Bio-Response Solutions, a U.S. company that specializes in aquamation, the process uses ’90 percent less energy than flame cremation and does not emit any harmful greenhouse gases.'”
I’d prefer to live forever and not have to think about mushroom coffins or my own decomposing flesh but death is a part of life and if we’re going to go we might as well go in the most efficient, environmentally friendly way possible.
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Is Aquamation the Greatest Idea Ever?
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