Cool idea rides again
This is a tale of freeze-dried disposal. First, a bit of backstory: The method of preparing a body for disposal by freeze-drying was invented in the US by schoolteacher Philip Backman. He patented it in 1978, and that patent has now expired. Backman’s proposed method of reducing the body to particles left a little to be desired […]
Keep calm and do the science
Well-meaning ignorance fuels lots of heated debate in Funeralworld. Broadsides of stats are exchanged, but how many of them are verifiable? In one thing we can trust: probably no one’s yet done the science. Take the following press release from the respected news agency Reuters: Globally, cremation emits over 6.8 million metric tonnes of carbon […]
Publishing event of the year!
The Natural Death Handbook, Fifth Edition A thoroughly updated and revised edition of the Natural Death Centre‘s celebrated handbook. Now presented alongside a new collection of essays on death, dying and funeral practices by doctors, historians, authors, poets, theologians and artists including Richard Barnett, David Jay Brown, Dr Sheila Cassidy, Charles Cowling, Bill Drummond, Stephen Grasso, […]
Smashing news
Here’s how a recent piece in the Daily Mail began: Being freeze dried and smashed into little pieces sounds like the stuff of sci-fi horror movies. But it is one of two methods of dealing with our dearly departed that could soon be available from a funeral director near you. And in keeping with sci-fi’s […]
Promession and cryomation go head-to-head at the ICCM
The prospect of Promession, the brainchild of Susanne Wiighe-Masak, has been around for a few years now. It offers an extremely attractive alternative to cremation. It is clean. It is gentle. Above all, it enables us to return to the earth in an environmentally useful way. If you want to remind yourself how it works, […]
The bureaucracy of bereavement
Good piece by the George Pitcher in the Daily Telegraph: I’m afraid I slipped into a daydream in church on Easter morn yesterday. It started by wondering how different the story might have been if the Jerusalem of 2,000 years ago was like the London Borough of Bromley today. The idea that Joseph of Arimathea […]
Cryomation wins that Shell award
Congratulations to Cryomation on winning a Shell Springboard climate change innovation prize -a notable vote for this new process, a worthy rival to cremation. Don’t know what Cryomation is? Check out their website here.
The sound of muesli
Did you ever come across promession? It is the brainchild of Susanne Wiighe-Masak, an environmentalist Swede. It offers, or promises to offer, an eco-friendly alternative to cremation. In Susanne’s words, this is how it works: Within a week and a half after death, the corpse is frozen to minus 18 degrees Celsius and then submerged […]
