Green burials: Cremation vs. Resomation?

The Greenest Way to Die - Resomation? By Katherine Butler,  Want to go green in death? Here’s a process that may allow you to do just that. Resomation involves an alkaline hydrolysis process that dissolves a body into both a liquid and a powdery white mass. Experts call it the green alternative to cremation, which notoriously releases nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, and sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere.
The process is legal in several U.S. states, and one undertaker wants to bring it to Belgium. But as American Public Media Marketplace reports, resomation is being met with some trepidation in Europe.  The process, which emits none of the toxic carbon ash common with crematoriums, uses much less energy than other death preparation practices. It is a zero-emissions process. The body is placed in a bag and lowered into a Resomator. The Resomator is filled with water and potassium hydroxide, which is heated to around 160 degrees Celsius. The result is a greenish, DNA-free liquid and a powdery mass of white bone. In the United States, it is a common way to dispose of bodies donated to medical science.
Now Belgian undertaker Bruno Quirijnen wants to bring the process, which was developed by a Scottish firm, to Antwerp. Quirijnen hopes city official will approve the process. As he told American Public Media, ”People don’t like to have chimneys in their back yard. So with resomation, you don’t have that problem. It’s very natural and it’s more eco-friendly.” 
But not everyone sees resomation as a viable solution for their post-mortem existence on Earth. Many everyday citizens are completely opposed to the idea of dissolving their body after death

Funeral homes subsidizing services for the poor

Funeral homes subsidizing services for the poor - thestar.com

Always a problem, even for Mozart... many cities are skimping on charity burials. Consider your location burial society as an alternative, and a Humanist funeral...
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Local funeral homes say they can no longer afford to spend millions a year subsidizing dignified farewells for the poorest Torontonians.
They are preparing to lobby city hall for a raise in the $2,208.88 “paupers’ funeral” subsidy, arguing it is now so outstripped by costs that the private businesses have become part of the cradle-to-grave social safety net.
There were 1,600 subsidized funerals across Toronto last year and only a handful were spare affairs for those unidentified or with no next of kin. Most — available to people on social assistance or provincial disability benefits — included full rites with visitation, service and motorcade.
Toronto & District Funeral Directors, in a report to councillors, says each of those funerals cost almost $5,500 to provide. Collectively, voluntarily accepting them costs its members between $1.8 million and $3.9 million each year, the association says.
“These small businesses can no longer afford to subsidize the cost of social service funerals,” and the problem is province-wide, states the report, obtained by the Star.
The association isn’t threatening a boycott like the one staged last year by legal aid lawyers.
But if the subsidy — set by municipalities but funded 80 per cent by the province — doesn’t rise, the association says members will have no choice but to consider stripped-down services, possibly with no visitation, services at graveside or crematorium rather than in a chapel, and fewer cars or no motorcade altogether.
“We have always provided those funerals at a loss, but the gap wasn’t so big and we didn’t do as many,” said Jim Cardinal, owner of Cardinal Funeral Homes. He calculated that his business alone loses $100,000 annually providing about 50 such funerals.