# Alternative to Cremation **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 30, 2011, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-to-cremation/594690 "2011-08-30T23:01:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2011, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-to-cremation/594690/1 "2011-08-30T23:01:42Z")
[Liquefaction](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14114555). It’s billed as a greener alternative to cremation, resulting in a third less greenhouse gas emission, uses far less energy, and prevents emission of mercury vapour from dental fillings. Amazingly, cremation is thought to account for 16% of airborne mercury in the UK, so it’s a genuine problem. Pretty sensible stuff, wonder if it will catch on. Cremation itself was seen as controversial a century ago. ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2011, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-to-cremation/594690/2 "2011-08-30T23:40:36Z")
I’m afraid to click that link. I think I heard that being buried in only a shroud and no casket is fairly green. I think I’ll still opt for cremation, though. No mercury fillings here, composite only. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2011, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-to-cremation/594690/3 "2011-08-31T00:44:25Z")
I would think the most environmentally friendly thing to do (other than not being born at all) would be wrap me in a sheet, weigh me down and dump me in the ocean, where the fishies would eat me all up. How about Explodification? I’d blow up real good. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2011, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-to-cremation/594690/4 "2011-08-31T00:48:46Z")
But the whole point of cremation is that your body goes up into the sky. With liquefaction, it goes down the drain. I don’t think this would be very popular. As for the mercury vapor issue, why can’t they just pull any teeth with fillings before cremation? ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2011, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-to-cremation/594690/5 "2011-08-31T01:21:54Z")
sky burial is green and feeds the birds. ---
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2011, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-to-cremation/594690/6 "2011-08-31T09:08:05Z")
The link is perfectly safe btw, it’s a BBC news article. > [@scr4](#): > > But the whole point of cremation is that your body goes up into the sky. With liquefaction, it goes down the drain. Yes, I can see that putting a lot of people off, but not everyone cares about such things. Think of it as joining the [great water cycle](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_cycle). As I said above, at one time there was a lot of resistance to the practise of cremation, despite unbelievable overcrowding in city cemeteries. The Catholic Church only approved the practice in 1963. It’s not inconceivable that it could become common. > [@scr4](#): > > As for the mercury vapor issue, why can’t they just pull any teeth with fillings before cremation? Could be done, but is kind of ghoulish and has unfortunate connotations. At the moment, crematoriums are spending a lot of money installing filtration systems. > [@Eve](#): > > How about Explodification? I’d blow up real good. Points for style, but kind of messy. I wouldn’t want to forget my umbrella at your funeral. > [@johnpost](#): > > sky burial is green and feeds the birds. I’d forgotten about sky burial. Kind of cool, but not practical in a city. The London pigeons are already fat enough. ---
**Author:** ![One\_And\_Only\_Wanderers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/838e76/32.png) [@One\_And\_Only\_Wanderers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/One_And_Only_Wanderers)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2011, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-to-cremation/594690/7 "2011-08-31T09:49:38Z")
I prefer the other method mentioned in the same article > [@](#): > > Another “green” alternative to cremation is in the pipeline. Susanne Wiigh-Masak, a Swedish biologist, has for a decade proposed a technology she calls Promession. > > The process involves a fully automated and patented machine. Coffins are fed in one end, and the body removed from the coffin within the unit and then treated with liquid nitrogen. > > The body is then vibrated until the body fragments, after which the remains are dried and refined further, and then passed through filters to remove metals, including dental amalgam. The remains are then poured into a square biodegradable coffin, again automatically, for shallow burial. Sits better with me than being flushed like a goldfish! ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2011, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-to-cremation/594690/8 "2011-08-31T12:35:12Z")
These still all seem really energy-intensive methods to me. Also, with the ‘promession’ method, the body is reduced to freeze dried powder, put in a box and buried in a shallow grave - won’t the powder be rehydrated by environmental moisture and then rot and stink (which is a problem in a shallow grave). I know if I shallowly buried a big box of blood, fish and bone meal (I assume this is of approximately similar composition) in my garden, I’d have a problem fairly soon. ---
**Author:** ![One\_And\_Only\_Wanderers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/838e76/32.png) [@One\_And\_Only\_Wanderers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/One_And_Only_Wanderers)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2011, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-to-cremation/594690/9 "2011-08-31T12:47:23Z")
You’re supposed to compost! Your dear widow will get some lovely roses the following year! ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2011, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-to-cremation/594690/10 "2011-08-31T13:07:16Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > I would think the most environmentally friendly thing to do (other than not being born at all) would be wrap me in a sheet, weigh me down and dump me in the ocean, where the fishies would eat me all up. I’m gonna go with the “strand me on an ice floe when I’m too old to be useful”. Because that will solve the whole “polar bears starving from global warming” problem. (My only issue with this solution is that my boss may decide that “too old to be useful” is “any time now”.) ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2011, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-to-cremation/594690/11 "2011-08-31T13:27:10Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > As for the mercury vapor issue, why can’t they just pull any teeth with fillings before cremation? > [@Alka\_Seltzer](#): > > Could be done, but is kind of ghoulish and has unfortunate connotations. At the moment, crematoriums are spending a lot of money installing filtration systems. Despite rumors of lots of my Dad’s family winding up in the ash heaps of Auschwitz (we actually don’t know for sure what happened to them - after 1939 those who had not left Europe already simply disappeared, fate forever unknown), my family now routinely practices cremation as opposed to burial and wouldn’t have an issue with fillings being removed for safety/environmental reasons. In other words, a lot of people can get over the ew factor. Granted, some never will, but I don’t require that a better method be universally adopted. I’m happy if just a portion of folks move in that direction. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2011, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-to-cremation/594690/12 "2011-08-31T14:14:58Z")
I am in favor of the “Giant meat grinder, then used for farm fertilizer” method that I just invented in my head. _Grind Me Up! Plow Me Down!_ ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2011, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-to-cremation/594690/13 "2011-08-31T14:39:01Z")
Just don’t die. ---
**Author:** ![VitrolicBump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a587f6/32.png) [@VitrolicBump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VitrolicBump)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2011, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-to-cremation/594690/14 "2011-08-31T19:58:20Z")
Or you could become a reef. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2011, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-to-cremation/594690/15 "2011-08-31T20:00:33Z")
> [@VitrolicBump](#): > > Or you could become a reef. I’m already a beetch. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2011, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-to-cremation/594690/16 "2011-08-31T20:31:33Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > I am in favor of the “Giant meat grinder, then used for farm fertilizer” method that I just invented in my head. > > _Grind Me Up! > Plow Me Down!_ Yes - or a woodchipper directed over the stern of a boat out at sea - give something back to the fishes. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2011, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-to-cremation/594690/17 "2011-08-31T21:07:23Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Yes - or a woodchipper directed over the stern of a boat out at sea - give something back to the fishes. And the eulogy – “He was my best chum”. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2011, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-to-cremation/594690/18 "2011-08-31T21:38:05Z")
I just don’t want to be paralyzed while the larvae of a giant ichneumon wasp eat their way out of my abdomen… ---
**Author:** ![Invisible\_Chimp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f05b48/32.png) [@Invisible\_Chimp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Invisible_Chimp)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2011, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-to-cremation/594690/19 "2011-08-31T21:43:59Z")
I don’t know how environmentally friendly it is, but I want to be plastinated when I die. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2011, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-to-cremation/594690/20 "2011-08-31T22:38:56Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > And the eulogy – “He was my best chum”. _Asses to Basses, chunks go plunk_ [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-to-cremation/594690.md?page=2)