A newspaper report announced, ‘Tutu laid to rest,’ describing the funeral for the recently deceased South African Archbishop and anti-apartheid fighter, Desmond Tutu. But he wasn’t really laid to rest was he? Another report that I saw explained that Archbishop Tutu was not buried but was reduced to dust through a new process called aquamation.

By this process, the body is put into a chamber containing a mixture of alkali and water and heated to 150 degrees Celsius. This liquifies the body except the bones which are dried in an oven and reduced to dust. I, of course, agree that announcing he was laid to rest sounds more dignified than saying he was liquified.

Disposal of the human body is a serious matter. One estimate places the US funeral services industry at about $16 billion during 2021. The funeral business is among those that remain out of sight but is also being affected by concerns about the environment and technology has been brought into play to alleviate some of these concerns.

The promoters of the aquamation process, an alternative to cremation and burial, used for Bishop Tutu claim it is more environmentally friendly than cremation. The underlying process is called alkaline hydrolysis and is said to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 35 per cent and energy use by 90 per cent. The liquid can then go through a normal waste water treatment process and be let out to a local garden. 

Another process promoted by a Swedish biologist is called promession precedes cremation or burial. Here, the body is frozen in a vat of liquid nitrogen making it very brittle. It is then broken through ultrasonic vibration resulting in a damp powder which is dried and then packed into a biodegradable coffin.

Towards cremation

Although people’s preferences seem to be running 50:50 between cremation and funeral services now, the trend is leaning towards the former which is increasing its share. If there are no religious requirements requiring one over the other, and costs being comparable, the preference for cremation is because it is considered more environmentally friendly. The embalming fluid in the body does no good to the soil.

Moreover, cemeteries are getting crowded and the cost of burial plots becoming unaffordable. One expensive location is the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem from where Jewish believers can expect priority when it comes to resurrection.

Cremation in an electric crematorium was certainly an improvement over the wood pyre. The latter is a messy process, particularly so if you want it to happen at the Manikarnika Ghat in Varanasi for an express ticket to heaven. The long line waiting for cremation there may result in your being dragged into the river even before you are fully done, adding to the river’s pollution. Apart from being cleaner and eliminating wood consumption, electric crematoriums also removed the chances of an accidental sati!

For Zoroastrians, earth, fire and water are sacred limiting their body disposal options. Hence, they lay it out in a tower of silence for flesh eating birds such as vultures to do their job. The remaining bones fell through into the well where they are placed and decompose in the layers of sand and charcoal.

But towers of silence used to be on the outskirts of the city for hygiene reasons which is not true anymore with rapid urbanisation and the supply of vultures also seems to be shrinking. In Mumbai, solar panels are used to concentrate the heat and light to aid decomposition in an ecologically friendly manner.

Emotional dimension

Apart from religion, the emotional dimension has an important role to play in this industry in mediating between demand and supply.

Good funeral directors will constantly remind you that you want to do the best for ‘your loved one’ as they sell the most elaborate burial casket to you. It takes a hard-hearted individual to be able to say yes, I loved my father, but a card board box is enough. Wise consumers will do well to delegate making funeral arrangements to a third party giving them a broad budget limit!

The writer is an emeritus professor at Suffolk University, Boston

comment COMMENT NOW