Latest developments and curiosities in the world of technology
Have your body turned into effluent and just poured down the drain when you die
Have your body turned into effluent and just poured down the drain when you die
A funeral home in Ottawa, Canada, is using a new body eco-friendly disposal technique called Alkaline Hydrolysis, which leaves only a coffee-like slurry that can be simply poured down the drain. Aquagreen Dispositions began operating in a rental unit within the former Rideau Regional Centre in Smiths Falls in May 2015 after receiving a licence from the Ontario government.
boingboing.net
How many of you would choose this over cremation or burial?
I can say pretty confidently that this is my forst choicce, barring some discovery that it is debunked in some way.




If you really don't care what happens after you die why not just donate your body to science or a body broker. My husband and I have already started the process and talked to our grown children about delivering our bodies to the Forensic Anthropology Center in Tennessee to be used at the body farm. http://fac.utk.edu/body-donation/
That is what I want personally. But when I die, I figure what happens to me is more important to my loved ones. So I will leave it up to them.
How complicated is it to do that? I've heard donating your body to science involves jumping through a ton of hoops, but I don't know if that's true.
I think if you go through a body broker it seems fairly simple but it's not something you can set up years in advance, except with your wishes. A body broker is contacted when death is imminent, I believe, from what we researched. If you go the body broker route though, they will donate everything they can to whatever science organizations have requested from organ and tissue donation to medical colleges or research.
The body farm was filling out a packet, submitting a photo, updating information, which we have not had to do yet, AND letting our children know our wishes and to ask them if they were willing to transport us or help each other transport the other when we die, which you can do, even across state lines.
We don't live within 100 miles of the University of Tennessee. We wanted to clear this with our children so they would know what to do. If your body goes to a funeral home it is a huge expense just to transport. There are delivery and receiving fees which could run up to $4000, which we don't want to have to pay for, even posthumously. If and when we die, if our children want to to pay for it out of our estate, they can but for now we are covering our basis.
It was an option that works well for us and our family. My husband and I are science and math based people and our children have been raised with that pragmatic science view of life. We are not here anymore when we die. These vessels can continue to serve a purpose beyond our exit which is more meaningful to us than having people stare at carcass or shaking or saving our dusty remains.
That is fascinating! Thank you so much! I share your views. I find so much of way we treat dead bodies to be wasteful and overly sentimental, and would much rather my body go toward scientific or forensic research -- somewhere it can do some good.
I don't think I wold ever do this.
Yeah I'm not sure if I could do that. Also, as someone who used to be on the cemetery commission for my town, I don't think I could convince others that that was the way to go. We have a hard enough time trying to get folks to think about "green" burials or other methods that are much more traditional.
I would have to agree with you there.
I agree, I don't think it is as green as they say, because:
That is a lot of water that needs to be retreated.
Yeah, this is my concern as well.
What kinds of green burials do you tend to recommend, out of curiosity?
For us it was trying to figure out stuff from a town planning perspective. In my state, each town is required by law to have cemeteries and be able to bury their dead. If you run out of space, you're kinda screwed. Some towns have had to turn their public parks into cemeteries.
Right now we bury people in big cement blocks basically, which are there 5ever and also tend to sometimes move, especially if your ground isn't properly like... formatted. Which in a lot of old cemeteries is totally the case.
So when we were planning a cemetery recently, we're trying to plan for what will be cultural considered an okay way to bury people for the next, say, two hundred years. So we were primarily looking at doing some sort of "hybrid" cemetery setup, which allows some areas for vaultless burials, some areas for more "traditional" stuff.
From my perspective, I think "green" cemeteries and burials are much cooler than the normal way we tend to do stuff in the states, as well as just less gross, frankly. And theres lots of cool stuff you can do with making it a living space, not just a dead space for the dead. Rather than having it an uptight and sterile environment, why not make it a nice place to go for a picnic, or generally a place more friendly to the living?
But really it wasn't so much recommending I guess as trying to provide options for different folks in the future, and also getting current day folks to be okay with the idea (since the townspeople have to approve anything we do).
That makes sense! Burying people in cement boxes has never felt right to me... I'd much rather peacefully decompose and give new life to the plants around me.
The thing is that folks kinda like the idea of having that spot forever-ish and with "green" burials, that's just not the case. It can be a weird conversation to have, when folks have certain expectations or just haven't ever thought about the subject before.
That's so interesting... Forever-ish sounds kind of sad to me. I prefer the pseudo-reincarnation of providing the earth with nutrients than the idea of being dead in a box forever. Guess it just goes to show how many different ideas there are about death!
Yeah totally :)