Eco-friendly ‘water cremation’ enters UK funeral services market

The UK’s largest funeral services company Co-op Funeralcare from the end of this year will suggest customers a new service – resomation, or, as it is often called, water cremation. Co-op Funeralcare, which organizes more than 93,000 funerals every year, promotes resomation as a procedure that is more “friendly to the body and the environment.” Thus, for the first time since 1902, when the law on cremation was passed, in Britain there is an alternative to burial in the ground and cremation, reports BBC.

The resomation procedure was developed not so long ago – in 2007 – by the Scottish scientist Sandy Sullivan. For its implementation, a sealed chamber is required in which the body is placed and a solution of sodium hydroxide is poured. After that, the pressure in the chamber is raised to 10 atmospheres, and the temperature is raised to 180°C. Within three hours, under the influence of alkali, pressure and temperature, the soft tissues of the body completely dissolve. As a result, bones remain, which, after drying, are ground into powder and, as in the case of conventional cremation, they are given to the relatives of the deceased in a special urn. The liquid left after such a procedure is simply drained into the sewer, like ordinary industrial wastewater, and, according to the technology developers, no traces of DNA remain in this liquid. While conventional cremation produces 245 kg of carbon emissions, which is more than 115 thousand tons per year in the UK alone, resomation produces three times less emissions and seven times less energy than cremation.

Resomation is already quite popular in the US, Canada and South Africa. In January 2022, in South Africa, for example, the body of Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu was recombined.

In the UK, 89% of adults have never heard of resomation until now. But after explaining the essence of the procedure, almost a third of the respondents said that they would choose resomation. This is evidenced by public opinion poll data conducted by YouGov at the request of Co-op Funeralcare.

Alena Miklashevskaya