Water Cremation: Novel Funeral Method Dissolves Your Body in a Bag

• We all end up in a bag, but you can at least choose whether you burn or boil in it.

Everybody dies — that much is a fact. But what happens to you can be a problem.

Traditional burials cost a lot and many places are starting to run out of grave sites. Cremation is cheaper, but burning a body can emit as much air pollution as driving almost 500 miles.

There are alternative solutions, like fungus-powered coffins and human composting. We can now add a new method to the list — water cremation.

But how can you burn a body in water? Well, the name “cremation” is misleading, since there’s no fire involved.

Instead, the method wraps the body in a bag and dissolves the fleshy parts with a combination of chemicals, high heat, and pressure.

It’s kind of like that body-dissolving scene from Breaking Bad, just more dignified.

The method is actually already in use in various places, including several U.S. states. But now the residents of the U.K. are also about to get a chance to lay their dearly departed in a watery grave.

Boiled in a Bag

Water cremation is only one name this funerary method goes by. Other names include aquamation, resomation, and (wonderfully clinical) alkaline hydrolysis.

All of them have the same end result, though.

The funeral home workers first wrap the body in a typically woolen shroud and place it in a “bio pouch” made from cornstarch. The body is then loaded on a metal platform and inserted into a high-pressure steel chamber.

Next, 95% of the chamber is filled with water. To fill the rest of the space, the operators pump in potassium or sodium hydroxide.

In other words, lye.

It’s then time to crank up the heat. The temperature in the chamber rises to more than 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Yet, the water doesn’t boil away due to the high pressure.

This combo of water, lye, high heat, and pressure starts dissolving the body’s tissues. Fast-forward four hours and there’s nothing left but bones, which have turned soft and brittle.

To wrap up the process, the funeral home grinds the bones into fine ash-like powder and places them in an urn. The loved ones of the deceased can then keep the urn, bury it, or scatter the powder like ashes.

But what about all that water — where does it go? Well, the family can decide to take the water and do as they wish with it.

If they don’t claim it, it simply gets flushed down the drain. It might seem disrespectful, but it really is just wastewater.

The water only contains dissolved proteins, sugars, salts… Only the most basic components of the human body.

There’s no DNA or any other trace of the deceased person left.

‘Gentler and Kinder’

Although its use on humans is relatively novel, water cremation has existed since the 1880s. It’s been mostly used to dispose of animal carcasses since it’s fast and leaves no potentially harmful remains.

Scottish biochemist Sandy Sullivan built the first human resomation chamber in 2009. Since then, it’s been approved and used in multiple U.S. states — Alabama, California, and Maryland, for example — in addition to Australia, Canada, Mexico, and the Netherlands.

The United Kingdom is now also about to get on board. Co-op Funeralcare, the U.K.’s largest funeral provider, will roll out water cremation as an option by the end of the year.

“[We] will be providing people with another option for how they leave this world because this natural process uses water, not fire, making it gentler on the body and kinder on the environment,” Julian Atkinson, director of the resomation provider Kindly Earth, told Euro News.

Indeed, water cremation produces no greenhouse gas emissions apart from those originating from powering the chamber. It also has the added benefit of producing more “ashes” than cremation, which the loved ones of the deceased may appreciate.

On the downside, water cremation costs about double what standard cremation does. Yet, it’s still a whole lot cheaper than a traditional burial.

Whether people will opt for aquamation depends on their views and religious convictions. Yet, a recent study in the U.K. found a third of the surveyed were interested in the method.

We’re sure many people will still choose the more traditional ways to dispose of their remains. But if you’d like to end your earthly journey by cooking sous-vide, the option is out there.