The water burial system could be added to a church and provide a different model for disposing of the dead. Photo / 123rf
The water burial system could be added to a church and provide a different model for disposing of the dead. Photo / 123rf
People in the United Kingdom could soon be able to choose to be boiled and flushed down the drain instead of cremated or buried.
A consultation on funerary methods by the UK’s Law Commission is proposing legal approval of alkaline hydrolysis and human composting as new ways of disposing ofpeople’s bodies.
Alkaline hydrolysis uses water, alkaline chemicals, heat and pressure to break down a body into liquid and pieces of bone, which can take between two and 18 hours.
Bones and teeth survive the process and are ground into a powder to be returned to the family, while the rest of the body is broken down into liquid, which can be sent to the sewers.
These funerals have been known as a water burial or resomation, but have colloquially been dubbed “flushed away” and “flush-and-bone” rituals.
The Law Commission states the process is fundamentally different from burial and cremation and yet there is no clear regulatory approval of the process, effectively barring it from being used in Britain.
Alkaline hydrolosis is quite different from more traditional burials.
People can choose a water burial in parts of Australia and Canada. A site in Navan, Ireland, is the first of its kind in Europe, which costs around €1500 ($2850).
The co-operative announced in 2023 it was hoping to bring water burials to British customers in what it called the “biggest change to funerals in over 120 years”.
But the endeavour failed as a result of regulatory hurdles that made it impossible under current laws.
A spokesman from Co-op Funeralcare said: “At Co-op Funeralcare, we are committed to serving the needs of our member-owners and clients and offering the most sustainable and affordable services.
“In 2023, we announced our ambition to pilot resomation in the UK, and we subsequently worked closely with the Government to explore the regulatory requirements to introduce this service across the nation. However, we did not proceed with this as, at the time, we were unable to find a path through the current regulatory framework.
“We welcome the Law Commission’s review and encourage exploration into alternative methods that provide consumers with greater choice and deliver environmental benefits.”
‘Have a cup of granddad’
There is “no specific regulation of new funerary methods” in England and Wales.
The consultation proposes that the law is changed to allow for new funeral methods to be approved and to define regulations. Criminal offences for improper use are also proposed.
Alkaline hydrolysis was used as a funerary method for the bodies of five dead people in 2019 as part of a specially authorised study into the process.
Dr Lian Lundy, of Middlesex University, a wastewater specialist, conducted the analysis and said it can take between four and 18 hours to complete, depending on various factors such as the concentration of chemicals and water temperature.
Her analysis found that the water a body boils in is full of compounds that are safe to be put back into the wastewater supply.
She said: “We collected the wastewater and analysed it for the sort of parameters used for trade effluent and all the pollutants that we looked at fell well within the range of values they would accept.
“From a technical perspective, for the parameters we looked at, it wasn’t an issue.
“It’s a system that could be added to a church or added to any location. So it would potentially be a completely different model for disposing of the dead.
She added: “Yorkshire Water collected the samples using their methods and then they analysed them in their labs. I just got an Excel spreadsheet and analysed the data.
“From a water quality perspective, our study didn’t indicate there were any issues with discharging to sewer.
The biggest hurdle, Lundy said, was social acceptability and not chemical or water safety.
“I think it’s because it’s a new process and people don’t really understand it,” she said. “And when it does get into the newspapers, it tends to be quite sensationalised, as in, ‘flushing grandma down the toilet’ and ‘have a cup of granddad’.
“But there’s a lot that goes into the sewer that we don’t really think about – waste from mortuaries and hospitals and all sorts of things that we don’t know about. So from that perspective, it’s not really any different.
“Some people view it as basically mixing up my loved one with poo in the sewer and they don’t like that. However, some people see returning to the water environment as being a gentler approach.”
