The average funeral today in the US costs thousands of dollars, sometimes upwards of $10,000, with the most popular funeral method being cremation.
In 2016, according to the National Funeral Directors Association, it's estimated that more than half of Americans sided with cremation, at about 50.2 percent, compared to just 43.5 percent who said they were prefer a burial. And as far as the demand for funerals, that is declining as well. In the last several years they've seen a decline in interest from consumers for funerals with visitation.
There are a variety of funeral services today that are more unique than the traditional burial or cremation options. Some a bit more practical, while others seem rather outlandish. You've got viking burials, water cremation, space burials, biourns that grow trees, and many other options out there.
Deep freeze funerals (otherwise referred to as cryomation) have started to increase in popularity, and soon might become commonplace in areas like the UK and elsewhere.
The process is also estimated to cost only around $500, compared to other funeral options which can easily be thousands of dollars.
The body is crushed by a machine and this method is considered to be more environmentally friendly than other cremation options on the market. One inventor from Sweden who is behind the process, Susanne Wiigh-Masak, admits that she has worked on the method for at least 2 decades, and is convinced that it's the most eco-friendly burial option out there today.
Critics say that the whole process is rather undignified, but their opinion on how flattering the process is shouldn't really matter, at least not to those who are interested. It should be up to the families and individuals to decide how they want to say goodbye, whether that be shipping themselves off to space, out to sea, or freezing themselves so that they can be pulverized.
Wiigh-Masah says that she saw the energy used for cremation, to both burn and crush bodies, as being a waste of resources; it's also contributing to the release of harmful chemicals into the environment. This concern is what fueled her interest to pursue her project for what she sees as a much greener option. This deep freeze funeral process is also known as the Promession, which is done with a Promator machine.
Government agents in the UK and Sweden are already looking to legalize this process as an acceptable alternative to cremation. The company behind the process also admits that it has orders from other countries as well, like Spain, Germany, and South Korea.
Pics:
Pixabay
Giphy
via internationalfuneralnews.com/ashes-to-ashes-cryomation-to-alkaline-hydrolysis/
Sources:
http://www.kentlive.news/news/kent-news/controversial-plans-britains-first-ever-1099673
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/a-burial-machine-that-will-freeze-your-corpse-vibrate-it-to-dust-and-turn-it-into-soil
http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/09/health/cremation-tops-burials-in-us-study/index.html
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/how-much-does-a-funeral-cost_us_5804c784e4b0f42ad3d264de
http://www.talkdeath.com/top-new-funeral-trends/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5292781/Sevenoaks-considering-eco-friendly-cremation-alternative.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/01/21/deep-freeze-funerals-set-come-uk/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promessa_Organic
https://www.npr.org/2014/12/13/370446879/avant-garde-afterlife-space-shortage-inspires-new-burial-ideas
https://www.vox.com/videos/2017/8/24/16194262/change-how-we-bury-dead
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