Editorial

Our relationship with death and the future of disposal

Welcome to the spring edition of the Journal and the first for 2022! Happy new year to you all – at least I hope it will be given the last 2 years that we have all experienced.

With many people dying prematurely and in greater numbers in a short amount of time, the one thing that this pandemic has highlighted is our relationship with death. It is the most inevitable part of life but so many of us choose to ignore it – if we don’t talk about it, it will never happen – and yet it still does. Death puts things in perspective. Those things we thought mattered soon have little relevance, and we start to really think about what is important to us. It is a moment for us to stop, to consider and to reflect.

Before I started working in this sector, I was much the same - although I have always loved walking around cemeteries and reading the inscriptions on headstones, I kept that to myself, as I could potentially be viewed as slightly weird! I am happy to say since then I have met many like-minded people and have come out of the “cemetery closet” so to speak!

We have been disposing of the dead for many centuries. Interestingly the method by which we do this hasn’t really changed that much, we have just become more sophisticated at it. Essentially, we have always had two choices – burial or cremation. It is the rituals and customs we attach to death that change depending on religious and spiritual beliefs. Death is both feared and celebrated at the same time.

Moving forward to current times, with the ongoing crisis of global warming and climate change, all industries have been forced to look at their current practices and come up with alternative, greener solutions. The funeral and death industry are no different. For the first time the need and desire for more environmentally friendly and sustainable options has risen to the top of the agenda.

So, what are the alternatives? In recent times I have read about several disposal practices claiming to be more environmentally aware that could become common practice. Most of these are in its infancy and, although some are being used more in the USA, they are not yet legal or practiced in the UK.

We have started to see the first electric cremators being installed in crematoria as an alternative to gas. It is still early days, and it will be interesting to review the data with regards to energy consumption, cost and maintenance in real terms as time goes on.

The concept of Resomation or “water cremation” has been around for quite a number of years now. That concept is finally becoming a reality in the UK with the first Resomation facility being given planning permission in Darlington. The application described this being the “next phase” in the evolution of our sector. The manufacturer claims it uses significantly less energy and emits significantly fewer greenhouse gases than flame cremation. It can help the industry improve its carbon credentials and meet the capacity challenges of a growing population, as well as offer more choice.

Then we have the concept of human composting. You may have heard terms such as Natural organic reduction (NOR) or Recompose and Precision Organic Dispersal. They are similar in that they look at the forensic management of natural decomposition. The breakdown of the body is powered by beneficial microbes that occur naturally on our bodies and in the environment. This together with natural plant material helps the body decomposition on a molecular level, resulting in the formation of a nutrient-dense soil.

There is also the first living coffin which I wrote about in the Spring 2021 edition of the Journal. The coffin, called Living Cocoon, was developed by a Netherlands-based company known as Loop, to serve as a more sustainable option for burials. The Loop Cocoon is the first living coffin created by nature, made of mycelium, the mat of fibres that forms the underground part of fungi.

Loop says, in collaboration with professors of the Delft University of Technology, it has been estimated to take 3 years to compost the human body with the Loop Cocoon compared to the current 10 to 20 years it takes in traditional coffins.

Then of course we have natural burial which we are more familiar with. This method returns the body to the earth in the most natural way possible, generally rejecting the embalming processes and using biodegradable coffins, buried at a shallow depth to help decomposition.

We do however have to proceed with caution. It is often difficult to prove green credentials due to a lack of independent data and what factors have been included (or excluded) like transport costs, or the cost of replacing parts etc to determine if something is as “green” as it claims to be. For us to be more environmentally aware we need to consider the whole picture from cars to coffins as well as how we actually dispose of the dead.

It will be interesting to see how these concepts develop and if any new innovative ideas are introduced. Let’s face it they thought cremation would never take off and now 80% of the population choose it as a preferred method of disposal. I guess we will have to watch this space!