An Alternative to Burial and Cremation Gains Popularity [alkaline hyrdolysis]

NY Slimes ^ | 10/19/17 | Jonah Engel Bromwich

[markomalley]

What do you want done with your body after you die?

It is an unnerving but important question, and for most Americans there have long been only two obvious choices: burial or cremation.

But a third option, a liquefaction process called by a variety of names — flameless cremation, green cremation or the “Fire to Water” method — is starting to gain popularity throughout the United States.

This week, California became the 15th state to outline commercial regulations for the disposal of human remains through the method, chemically known as alkaline hydrolysis.

It may seem markedly different from the traditional means of digging graves or burning the dead. A machine uses a chemical bath to dissolve protein, blood and fat, leaving only a coffee-colored liquid, powdery bone and any metal implants, like dental fillings.

[markomalley]

Down further in the article, it says:

But experts note that the fluid is sterile and contains nutrients, so much so that it can be and is used as a fertilizer

[NTHockey]

Burial at sea for me. Fish food.

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

Mix it with beer and have a super soaker funeral.

[RegulatorCountry]

Sounds likequicklime owould do much the same to me.

[Autonomous User]

Soylent Green.

[SamuraiScot]

Kind of a KGB flavor to this, isn’t there? Gives new meaning to describing someone who has been murdered as “liquidated.”

[Responsibility2nd]

Didn't they try this on Breaking Bad?

It didn't end up so well.

[Rebelbase]

Somehow I can’t see much of a market at Ace Hardware for fertilizer labeled ‘Liquefied Human’.

[Right Brother]

A machine uses a chemical bath to dissolve protein, blood and fat, leaving only a coffee-colored liquid

So, that's how Starbuck's does it.

[caligatrux]

But experts note that the fluid is sterile and contains nutrients, so much so that it can be and is used as a fertilizer

See, that right there is really, really creepy. Like some serious Alex Jones stuff.

[Ben Ficklin]

I recall a TV murder mystery(maybe CSI) in which the body was disposed of by dissolving in a barrel of caustic soda aka lye aka sodium hydroxide

[Moonman62]

So, that’s how Starbuck’s does it.

...

They can call it Latte Green.

[be-baw]

Yeah, you shouldn’t do it in a cast iron bathtub.

Actually, I think in BB they used some kind of acid.

[Olog-hai]

This is what the Mexican cartels do to their murder victims, AFAICR; either this way or with acid. The Slimes is suggesting this for burial “alternative”?

[markomalley]

I recall a TV murder mystery(maybe CSI) in which the body was disposed of by dissolving in a barrel of caustic soda aka lye aka sodium hydroxide

Sounds like the "cleaning" process described in the series, "Nikita"

[CommerceComet]

Isn’t this what the Mexican cartels do when they decide to dispose of a body?

[pgkdan]

Soylent Green paste.

[bgill]

Leaving the body out for buzzard food or planting it in the garden is a lot cheaper and no need for chemicals.

[RedStateRocker]

I have arrangements to be buried in a vineyard, under a grape vine.

I’d gladly leave my body to science, but it would probably set biology back 10 years.

[Ben Ficklin]

I don't know about Nikita but the process is used in industry. Caustic is a very good cleaner and is cheap so it used as a degreaser. It will dissolve aluminum so it is used to produce etched parts for the aircraft industry.

Years ago I worked for a company that did metal cleaning and it operated a hot caustic tank. Back then(1970s), those caustic beads cost 19 cents/pound