A NEW way of dealing with bodies after death could be on its way to the North East if plans for a resomation facility go ahead.

Known as “water cremation”, resomation is an alternative to burial or cremation and involves using an alkaline solution to speed up the process of decomposition.

Touted as a greener alternative to burial or traditional flame cremation, it uses less energy and has a lower carbon footprint.

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Julian Atkinson, who specialises in making environmentally friendly coffins, submitted an application to Darlington Borough Council to set up a facility in Morton Park Way.

His firm JC Atkinson is working with LBBC Group Ltd, which makes the specialist equipment.

The company has described the process as the "next phase" in the evolution of the sector, and would help the industry improve its carbon credentials.

It works by using a water-based solution to speed up the natural process of decomposition the body goes through at the end of life, taking a matter of hours rather than months or years as with burial.

The Northern Echo:

A resomation centre in the US 

 

Once complete, the bones are removed from the water cremator in a similar way as they are after flame cremation before being reduced to ashes and returned to the family.

Once cremation is complete, the liquid is removed from the cremator and held in a separate tank to be assessed before returning to the water treatment system.

The process is available in parts of the US and Canada but is not yet available in the UK, though five took place several years ago at a temporary facility to demonstrate the process.

Last year, following a study of the process, Yorkshire Water became the first water company to grant consent to LBBC for the water cremation process.

When asked about the process, a spokesperson for the company told the Northern Echo: "Emerging innovations take time to be accepted and normalised as people adapt and regulatory authorities make the necessary changes.

"Water cremation is no different and indeed is the first major innovation in end-of-life options in over 150 years since commercial flame cremation was first introduced in the UK.

"However, the industry is now seeing this as a genuine alternative that the public should be offered particularly in this period of climate emergency. "

Northumbrian Water has granted the company consent to discharge trade effluent from the premises.

The British Institute of Embalmers, which has been providing training courses in Darlington for more than 20 years, has written in support of the application.

Professor Douglas Davies, director of the Centre of Death and Life Studies at Durham University, is also backing the scheme. He said: "If this plan goes ahead Darlington and the North East have an excellent opportunity to lead the field in the UK on the technology, science, social science, cultural values and funeral practice."

He added: "While this may not always be easy I am encouraged by the way the UK, historically, led the field in modern cremation, as also in woodland burial, and by the way individuals with forward thinking have helped changed the mortality and funeral landscape as time has gone by.

"I sense we are now at a new turning point, and potentially even a tipping point, on the carbon footprint of death."

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