Environment friendly body disposal

It holds annual conferences where members debate and discuss modern trends in burials and cremations. This year they held their 22nd conference in Sydney under the theme “Sustainability in your Environment”.
This year’s conference was was held jointly with the International Cremation Federation (ICF), an international non profit organisation devoted to promoting the practice of cremation to the highest standards. It defines its goals as to provide information concerning cremation. The merits viewed inter alia from a hygienic, ethical, economic and environmental point of view are;
– to simplify the process of cremation and to secure a general recognition of this rite.
– to free cremation from legal restrictions in countries where they still exist.
– to raise cremation to the same level as entombment or burial.
– to eliminate problems encountered in transporting the ashes of a deceased person from one country to another.
I was privileged to have attended this year’s conference, thus this week, I chose to share with our readers some of the things I learnt from down under.
Modern trends in human body disposal more and more point towards economical and environmental friendly methods such as cremation and resomation. Above ground burials, for an example burial in Mausolea are also gaining in popularity. The world over, there is strong advocacy for cremation and resomation by organisations involved in the disposal of human remains, of which ACCA and ICF are some of them.
There were presentation of country reports from China, Japan, German, USA and others. The common thread that ran through most of the reports was the fact that cremations were increasing with each year.
Of around 135 000 deaths in Australia, 76 000, representing 56 percent, get cremated. In Germany, cremations have been increasing rapidly over the years, with over 60 percent of German dead being cremated while in Japan, nearly 100 percent of their dead are cremated annually.
Not only is cremation a cheaper way of disposing human remains, it is also environmentally friendly. Most of those who do not choose cremation do so for religious or cultural reasons. For those who practise Orthodox Judaism, Islam and Eastern Orthodoxy, cremation is not an option. The Roman Catholic Church has been accepting cremation for decades now as a way of human remains disposal.
Not only has the practice of cremation been socially acceptable, but the church no longer considers cremation to be a danger to the teachings  associated with non-Christian beliefs, or with the denial of the doctrine of resurrection of the body.
 Infact, the church teaches that cremated remains should be memorialised in a recognised place similar to that for an entombment or burial.
 Cremation History
Historically, cremation of the faithful was forbidden. The reason was not that cremation was inherently wrong, but rather it was counter to earlier Christian tradition and was initiated by later anti-Christian movements with the intent of destroying the belief in the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body.
In effect, cremation had become associated with the denial of resurrection of the body, thus running counter to a belief integral to the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.
Pope John Paul VI, after reviewing the matter in light of prevailing social, economic and environmental conditions, decided to lift the ban on cremation of the faithful in 1963, lifting the lid to Catholics being cremated.
What is cremation?
Cremation is the process of reducing human remains to basic elements in the form of bone fragments through flame, heat, and vaporisation.
Cremated remains are not ashes in the usual sense, contrary to popular belief, they are dried bone fragments that have been pulverised in an Electric Cremated Remains Processor.
This leaves the bones in fine sand like texture and colour, able to be scattered without any foreign matter.
Cremation may serve as a funeral or post funeral rite that is an alternative to the entombment or interment (burial) of an intact body in a casket. Cremated remains, which are not a health risk, may be buried or scattered in memorial sites or cemeteries, or they may be legally retained by relatives or dispersed in a variety of ways and locations. In many countries, cremation is usually done in a crematorium but others may prefer different methods.
Resomation
While cremation is regarded as economical and environmentally friendly, a new form of human body disposal said to be more environmentally friendly has been invented. It is called Resomation. The word Resomation comes from the Greek word “Resoma” which means rebirth of the human body. It is the process of dissolving the human body back to its organic components and its beneficial and rapid return to the eco system to be reused as nature has designed.
When a human body is buried, it will go through a process of natural decomposition. The main component of natural decomposition is Alkaline Hydrolysis carried out by bacteria. This process forces water molecules into organic material and breaks it down to its smaller components.
With Resomation, an alkaline solution is made out of mixing approximately 15 litres of alkaline with 400 litres of water. The body is immersed into the solution and rapidly heated to around 170 degrees Celsius within two to three hours.
After three hours the body turns to ash. This process is said to use less energy and produces much less carbon dioxide than in cremation. It also does not release harmful substances such as mercury into the environment. Resomation is effectively a much enhanced and accelerated version of body decomposition hydrolysis found in nature, thus enhancing environmentally friendly human remains disposal.
Cremation is not practiced widely by indigenous Zimbabweans because of religious and cultural beliefs.
Should there be a shift to cremation by a sizeable number of indigenous Zimbabweans, there is a need for serious investment into crematoria as the ones currently in operation are crematoria only in name.
The few cremations that get done in Zimbabwe at the moment take place after days, or even weeks due to equipment limitations.
In Zimbabwe, the crematoria infrastructure is so dilapidated and antiquated, a far cry from what I saw in Sydney.
Looking at the benefits of cremation versus burial, in economic and environmental terms, I see more and more indigenous Zimbabweans choosing cremation in five to 10 years time.
Cremation and eventually Resomation is the way to go for sustainable management of our environment even in Zimbabwe.

– Philip Mataranyika is the CEO of Nyaradzo Funeral Assurance Company. He can be contacted at mavmat67@hotmail.com