Resomation: why do they cook the dead in the UK

Interest in alternative funerals in the world is growing every year. Once considered advanced cremation turned out to be imperfect from the point of view of ecology and energy consumption, so the search for new methods continues. In the UK, a new method of burial, called resomation, has recently been officially allowed. This is the disposal of the bodies of the deceased in boiling water.

The British are known for their conservatism. After cremation was allowed in their country in 1902, no funeral innovations appeared in Foggy Albion. It took 20 years to convince citizens of the advantages of this method! But even later, the burning of bodies was treated unimportantly and only by the 1960s such funerals became popular.

This year, the authorities approved the resomation. While I practice this method of burial privately, but by the end of the year they promise to start using it en masse. Not all Britons have heard of the new method, and there are many doubters among those who know about it. There are debates about how ethical it is to boil the body of the deceased. But the authorities assure that this is "the most sparing for the body and environmentally friendly" way of burial. Fast, convenient, hygienic and most importantly — no carbon footprint.

Resomation, also called aquamation or alkaline hydrolysis, is the dissolution of a body in a sealed bag with alkali (potassium hydroxide) and water. At the same time, a temperature of 180 degrees and a pressure of 10 atmospheres are maintained. It's like cremation, only not in fire, but in chemical boiling water.

After resomation, bones remain, which are crushed into powder and transferred to the relatives of the deceased in an urn. With such disposal of bodies, energy costs are less than during cremation, there are no carbon emissions into the atmosphere, and water consumption is minimal. 115 thousand tons of carbon emissions are generated annually in the UK due to cremation, so resomation is an excellent eco—friendly alternative to fire burial.

The British have not become innovators in this regard. Alkaline hydrolysis is already used in the USA, Canada and South Africa. Now the technology has come to Europe. While resomation is not used en masse, scientists are investigating the consequences of private funerals. The fact is that after the "cooking" of the corpse, water with alkali is drained into the sewer. So far, no serious consequences for the environment have been detected.

For the widespread introduction of this method of funeral, a number of documents must also be agreed. To date, two water supply and drainage companies in the UK have issued permits to use their systems for resomation. The drains were recognized as commercial and equated them with the drains of laundries and car washes. It is necessary to coordinate the issue with several more companies that are still considering requests.

The first British company offering a new type of funeral was Co-op Funeralcare. The company is ready to cook the dead in alkali so far only in the north-east of England. The necessary equipment is already there and all issues with local services have been settled.

The funeral begins quite ordinary — the deceased lies in a coffin and family and friends say goodbye to him. But when the ceremony is over, the body will be wrapped in a wool shroud, placed in a tight bag of corn starch and sent to the chamber with a solution of 95 percent water and 5 percent potassium hydroxide. The process takes 3-4 hours. In this case, the soft tissues completely dissolve, and the bones demineralize.

The survey showed that 29 percent of Britons do not mind being buried in this way. They began to prepare the residents of the country for the innovation in advance. In 2019, the dystopian series "Years" was released, in which "aquapohorons" are shown. One of the heroes explains their essence to the other like this:

Sounds very tempting, doesn't it?