Wednesday, 18 January 2012
The Future of Eco Funerals? Freezing Bodies Terminator Style
This company in Sweden called Promessa is beginning to investigate alternative funeral practices and different ways of handling the dead.It seems like a weird sci-fi thing of freezing bodies and shattering them. The name of this new practice is Promession. It works like this, the body is chilled to 18 degrees Celsius and then entirely submerged into liquid nitrogen. Once the body is frozen solid and it is brittle enough that it can be shattered the moisture is removed from the remains, inorganic products are removed by an electromagnet and the remains are ready for burial. The box that remains are placed into is biodegradable. Once the remains turn to compost a tree or plants on top of the grave will grow. This practice is more Eco-friendly than traditional burial and cremation. There are no preservatives added, and no toxic gases emitted through this process. The promains act as rich nourishing mulch and are an excellent source of food. Not only is this process Eco-friendly it cuts the cost of burials but about half. This practice is quite new and is just being introduced into the U.S. It has been licenced in Sweden, U.K and Korea since 2008. Canada could be next. I wouldn't mind having a tree represent me when I pass on!
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Wow Noori, this is such an amazing post! I think it is really interesting that the remains are entirely organic material, and that the whole process is so eco friendly. Did you find out anything about the cost of this procedure? It would be interesting to know how the price compares to cremation as they yield very similar results :)
ReplyDeleteHey Meredith,
ReplyDeleteThe cost is roughly half of the cost of a burial. So Burials are usually around $6000, so this procedure is $3000. It's not only eco-friendly, its affordable!