Dissolving the dead (A radical alternative to burial and cremation)

BBC News ^ | May 22, 2017 | William Kremer - BBC World Hacks

[sukhoi-30mki]

For decades, most people arranging a funeral have faced a simple choice - burial or cremation?

But in parts of the US and Canada a third option is now available - dissolving bodies in an alkaline solution. It will arrive in the UK soon.

Its technical name is alkaline hydrolysis, but it is being marketed as “green cremation”.

So long, Robert Klink

Robert J Klink spent his life near water.

When he was growing up in the 1950s, his parents had a cabin on South Long Lake, in Minnesota, the land of 10,000 lakes. He learned to fish and hunt near the water’s edge.

It became a lifelong passion, and for many years he and his second wife Judi Olmsted kept a couple of cabin cruisers on the Saint Croix River. Bob would fish and shoot ducks, which he prepared and ate by himself.

Shortly before Bob’s death in March from colon and liver cancer, Olmsted approached her local funeral home, Bradshaw Celebration of Life Center in Stillwater.

She told the people there that her husband wanted to be cremated when his time came.

She was surprised to learn that Bradshaw’s offered two types of cremation: the one that everyone knows about, involving fire, and a new kind, which uses water.

A pamphlet explained that this “gentle, eco-friendly alternative to flame-based cremation” used an alkaline solution made with potassium hydroxide to reduce the body to a skeleton.

“At first, I was thinking, ‘Well, I don’t know about that,’” Olmsted says.

But the more I thought about it, the more I thought that it was the best way to go.”

[umgud]

Any solution with a ph high enough to do the job would be a hazardous waste when done, unless it was neutralized.

[capt. norm]

My son (in his 40's) and my daughter-in-law asked me which way I wanted go, burial or cremation.

I told them to " Let it be a surprise"

[Governor Dinwiddie]

[capt. norm]

"Human lutefisk."

Payback for the ultimate "uff-dah"

[shibumi]

"Ashes to Ashes
Dust to Dust
If you don't
Take it out
And use it
It's going to Rust."

(Michael Ironside as General Katana)

[outofsalt]

Plop-Plop! Fizz-Fizz! Oh what a relief this is...

[PLMerite]

[outofsalt]

"Just don’t do it in your upstairs bathtub"

Can't, I'm soaking my transmission in kerosene.

[dangerdoc]

Then what, do they pump the deceased into the sewer system or just pipe him straight to the nearest river?

[fortes fortuna juvat]

Check out Promession (freeze-drying method) as another alternative.

[Wonder Warthog]

"An increased demand for that kind of process for the dearly departed should lead to increased supply of the chemicals required to achieve that end."

Shortage?? Sodium hydroxide is already produced in multi-megaton quantities. Dissolving a few corpses won't even dent the supply.

[KosmicKitty]

I saw Walter White do that.

[Brookhaven]

I wonder if burial at sea will become more popular.

[NTHockey]

So where is the energy saving component?

[moovova]

“... used an alkaline solution made with potassium hydroxide to reduce the body to a skeleton....”

...which is hung in the closet until Halloween.

“Granny just loved Halloween so much.”

[moovova]

It pays to read the comments before posting. I didn’t...and you beat me to the excellent skeleton/closet/Halloween meme.

I lose.

[Mechanicos]

Or, one can continue to shine on....
http://lifegem.com/

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Well there is always this old method. Run a rod through the results and make a lamp. Great conversation piece for parties.

[MSF BU]

No screenshot from Soylent Green.

[bar sin·is·ter]

Well, Grandpa always did light up the room...