Greening Death |
Monday Jan 04 2010
Susanne Wiigh-Masak has invented a way of turning human remains into organic waste. Armed with her physics degree and engineering experience, she has created a device that deep-freezes corpses, shatters the body into small bits using vibrations, and then vacuums water out of the pieces. The dry powder that remains can be placed in a biodegradable coffin and buried just below ground. When moisture penetrates the coffin, the nutrients of the powder support plant and insect life. The device has been only tested on pigs so far, but people in 10 countries are interested in purchasing it to use for humans.
This is the future of the death-care industry. Underground burials are becoming a thing of the past, due to the heavy environmental impacts of metal caskets, toxic embalming fluid and mercury tooth fillings. Crematorium manufacturers have been working to reduce C02 emissions over the past decade: now forward-thinking funeral homes are upgrading their facilities with new technologies that use sodium hydroxide to dissolve the body, leaving brittle material that turns to dust with a shake. Cardboard coffins, 100% recycled or biodegradable urns, plant-based embalming fluids, and cemeteries that double as parks are also some of the new options helping to move eco-burials into the mainstream.
Source: Canadian Business Online
Tagged with: death death-care eco-burial
RSS Feeds
