Sask. first to approve greener body disposal for funeral homes

Saskatchewan has become the first province in Canada to approve a new and greener way to deal with bodies.

It’s called alkaline hydrolysis.

Todd Lumbard of Speers Funeral Home in Regina says the end results are a lot like cremation.

But instead of burning the body, it is put into a pressurized chamber along with an alkaline solution.
That reduces the body to liquid and bone.

The liquid is dumped down the drain or flushed away and the powdered bone is returned to the family the same way ashes would be.

“With regular cremation you do have smoke going out a smoke stack and more and more there’s environmental concern about that,” said Lumbard.

Alkaline hydrolysis has a much smaller carbon footprint than cremation so it is seen as a more environmentally friendly option.

“You have a different process with the liquid going into the drain, but it’s not smoke going into the air,” said Lombard.

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