Is the Future of Death Care Same Old. . Same Old??

It seems really ironic just to make the headline statement for someone who has seen the death care/funeral industry change so fast over my 35 year career.  As I’ve said before, within a generation America has changed from a burial disposition society to one of a cremation disposition society.  So, we have been anything but same old, same old.

Most of us in funeral service have not only seen the rise of the cremation industry but the proliferation of it as well.  However, the cremation industry, even while advancing every day, has some headwinds going against it.  For instance, the younger generation worries about pollutants into the air, fossil fuels being burned to produce the desired results, and just the fact of being going up in flames at high temperatures.

While the industry continues to work on these headwinds everyday the younger more environmentally cautious and less religiously devout citizens are continually looking to see what is out there.  One of the trends these people have found is that of alkaline hydrolysis as a means of final disposition.

Alkaline hydrolysis or flameless cremation is rapidly being accepted by state health jurisdictions as a legal means of final disposition.  However, just as flame cremation has moved against some headwinds as we mentioned above, alkaline hydrolysis is starting to find some resistance as well.  While it is billed as more green, more environmentally friendly, and a user of much less fossil fuels than cremation, some jurisdictions are now starting to wonder about the effluent that is a by product of the process being released into city water systems.  You can read about a city in the United Kingdom questioning this practice here.

The push and pull of these processes leaves me to think about the Shakespeare quote, “Why leave these ills we have for those we know not of.”  Will communities be worrisome enough of the by product of  alkaline hydrolysis that they  will stick with flame cremation as the standard in their communities even though they know of the environmental limitations with such?  Or will they be bold enough – or science be clear enough – to prove that alkaline hydrolysis is as safe, or safer, to the community

That’s what brings up my question.  Will the future of death care disposition rely on the same old flame cremation as we have or will communities be bold enough to look for new options? Our guess is that anything new and different will have questions by many.  However, we also believe that future generations are looking for the right answer and we believe the same old, same old will eventually be replaced.

[wpforms id=”436″ title=”true” description=”true”]

 

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Posted in

Funeral Director Daily

Leave a Comment





Subscribe to Funeral Director Daily
Enter your email address to join 3,502 readers who subscribe to all Funeral Director articles.

advertise here banner