Aquamation: The Green Burial Alternative

Simply put: aquamation, also known as water cremation or alkaline hydrolysis, is a method of disposition. You might be wondering what disposition means. In this case, we’re using it to describe the disposal of a human body after death.

Diving deeper, aquamation uses a mixture of water and salts to dissolve the soft tissue of a body after death. It’s an eco-friendly alternative to traditional cremation that relies on fire and combustion to incinerate soft tissue, and is widely increasing in popularity for its perceived “gentleness.”

In this article we’ll be discussing how aquamation works, what makes it different from flame cremation, and why you might consider choosing aquamation for yourself or a loved one.

During the aquamation process, human remains are placed into a basket, and moved into a large stainless steel cylinder, where the aquamation process takes place. Once the body has been placed in the aquamation vessel, the door is closed and the vessel is filled with a solution of 95% water and 5% alkali salts. These are some of the same salts that are found in household soaps and cleaners.

The aquamation vessel is lightly pressurized, and the water-salt solution gently rushes over the body with the addition of some heat. Over the course of 4 hours, the soft tissue of the body is fully dissolved, leaving behind soft, brittle bone matter. Once dry, these bone fragments are broken down to make pure, white ashes (of which there are 33% more than flame cremation.)

Aquamation is a much more eco-friendly choice for human disposition than fire cremation. It is also considered more gentle, peaceful, and humane than typical fire cremation (while also producing more ashes for family members to keep/share). A study by Dutch researcher Elisabeth Keijzer found that the overall environmental impact of water cremation was 5% (or 20x less) than flame cremation.

You might be surprised to learn that both flame and water cremation have been around for centuries. Aquamation was first patented in 1888, and has been in use in the US for decades. The process is actively regulated in 23 states, and is steadily gaining legislative recognition in more and more states. The Mayo Clinic has used Aquamation as a final disposition method for donated bodies since 2005, and UCLA has used it since 1995.

60% of the average human body is composed of water. That’s why, in all disposition methods, human tissue is returned to the water cycle.

In traditional burial this may include some bodily fluids being drained through embalming and remaining fluids making their way into groundwater as decomposition slowly takes place. In most cases the process takes years due to the presence of steel or concrete vaults and coffins. In this process, embalming fluids and building materials are also leached into the soil during this process–making their way into the groundwater supply.

Flame cremation, on the other hand, relies on a process of combustion – burning. Soft tissue and bodily fluids are burned using fossil fuels, and are released into the atmosphere as vapor (eventually returning to the earth as rain.) These vapors accompany around ~540lbs of carbon emissions, which are considered greenhouse gas emissions.

With aquamation, soft tissue is dissolved into a solution called “effluent” and accompanies the second by-product, ashes. Effluent is a nutrient-rich liquid solution that is benign, sterile, and contains no DNA. Effluent is treated for safety, and is returned to the water cycle in a number of hours, rather than years. These fluids are either transported to municipal systems for further purification and reuse, or can sometimes be used as fertilizer. Aquamation returns water to the water cycle without the emissions that contribute to climate change and rain acidification.

The aquamation process is more expensive than fire cremation, but cheaper than burial. The average cost for aquamation is around $3,500, while the average cost for traditional burial is around $9,000 and the average cost for cremation is around $1,500.

Funeral costs vary widely depending on your location, and the additional options you choose with your purchase. According to a 2021 study by the National Funeral Directors Association, the median cost of an adult funeral with a viewing and cremation was found to be $6,970.

So, why might aquamation cost more than flame cremation?

While aquamation is a tested, safe and legal process, machinery is new and expensive. This creates higher costs for funeral providers, who might need to retrofit older facilities to accommodate aquamation machinery. Additionally, aquamation machinery is more complex than flame cremation machinery. Aquamation machines ensure that the process is gentle, safe and results in an ecologically efficient process that is free of harmful emissions.

In the past five years flame cremations have surpassed traditional burial as the leading disposition method in the United States, with 57.5% of Americans choosing cremation in 2021. As flame cremation has increased in popularity in the United States, so has its environmental impact. While flame cremation does not have the land use impact of traditional burial, recent studies have found that its overall environmental impact is almost equivalent due to its use of fossil fuels, level of carbon emissions and potential for release of particulate matter and harmful chemicals.

On average flame cremation uses 28lbs of fuel and releases over 500lbs of carbon dioxide. In 2021, cremation accounted for over 1 billion lbs of greenhouse gas emissions, and used over 44 million gallons of fuel.

Cremation may also release harmful chemicals, like mercury, into the air. The United States Environmental Protection Agency estimates that cremation is the third largest contributor of airborne mercury. While some crematories use filtering mechanisms to try to mitigate the impact of these airborne contaminants, environmental regulations are regional in nature, and there are no national guidelines for contaminant abatement.

In comparison, aquamation uses no fossil fuels and releases no harmful emissions in the form of particulate matter, carbon dioxide or harmful chemicals.

While the health impact of living near crematories has not been widely studied, one longitudinal study in England did assess “rates stillbirth, neonatal death, and lethal congenital anomalies among babies of mothers living close to incinerators or crematoria in Cumbria, England, between 1956 and 1993.” The study found that risk of stillbirth and anencephalus increased for individuals living in proximity to crematories. The study was inconclusive in establishing a causal relationship between proximity and risk, because crematories were located in areas that typically contained other large sources of environmental pollution.

Crematories are typically located in industrial areas which have historically existed in proximity to underserved communities. As a result, the environmental pollutants generated from cremation might disproportionately impact marginalized communities. This might result in a higher risk of premature death.

While aquamation is increasingly becoming legal in more states, access to the process is still constrained.

In California, Pisces offers aquamation services across the state to all of its 39 million residents. Whether you’re interested in planning for the future or need immediate assistance, feel free to get in touch or set up a time to chat. We’re always excited to talk and help you make the eco-friendly choice today!