“2,000 to 2,500 cremations are carried out each year by incinerator. To be profitable, it is necessary to burn 1,500 to 2,000 bodies. According to a study by the University of Liège, we have enough incinerators geographically speaking with 22 crematoriums”declares Xavier Deflorennes, coordinator of the Funeral Heritage Management Unit of the Walloon Region.
The basements of our cemeteries are increasingly polluted because of bodies “wrapped in plastic covers”: “It’s catastrophic!”
Eco-funeral
One of the advantages of cremation is its ecological aspect. “Cremation releases 3.6 times less greenhouse gases than burial.specifies Xavier Deflorennes. More and more, the population pays attention to this criterion even in death.
Eco-funerals are growing. This is how funeral forests like Fleurus came into being. The family is invited to scatter the ashes of the deceased at the foot of a tree. On a more technical level, other forms of burial are practiced abroad and arouse curiosity: aquamation and cryomation. “There is real interest in that. It’s something to think about. We are in a transfer of knowledge”notes the coordinator.
Aquamation is a type of cremation using water rather than fire. The mortal remains are placed in a pressurized steel tank filled with water heated to 150° and potassium and/or sodium hydroxide. The body’s organic components dissolve and the bones are ground into powder and given to relatives.
With cryomation, the body is frozen at -18° for 10 days before being immersed in liquid nitrogen at -196°. The corpse has become crumbly and everything is reduced into small particles until they can be freeze-dried.
Humusation will remain a prohibited practice in the Brussels region: discussions are underway to develop other “eco-funeral” methods.
Green light for two new methods
At the request of Flemish Minister Bart Somers, the Bioethics Advisory Committee looked into these methods in 2020.There is a demand for other means of burial from the population and public authorities not only for ecological reasons but also because traditional burial takes up a lot of space and is quite expensive.notes Paul Cosyns, vice-president of the committee until 2023.
To position itself, the committee took into account respect for the body of the deceased, respect for those around them, the ecological dimension of the method, the health dimension and the financial side.
Humusation consists of transforming the corpse into humus by putting it directly in contact with the earth and covering it with natural elements. This practice is prohibited and has not received the approval of the committee. “The feasibility study was inconclusive on the outcome. And there is a problem regarding respect for the remains because nocturnal animals can disturb the grave.”specifies Paul Cosyns. It is already possible to bury a body in the ground without a coffin, in a biodegradable cover or shroud. This is natural burial.
The people of Brussels have a new crematorium
On the other hand, the committee is not opposed to aquamation and cryomation. The first “can be proposed as a new form of burial. The technique is up to date and successfully evaluated in relation to the ethical framework used in the opinion.” According to the committee, the process is “more environmentally friendly than cremation because it does not require wooden coffins, but a simple silk shroud. It also consumes much less energy than cremation where bodies are cremated at temperatures close to 1,000°. Two crematoriums in Flanders have already shown their interest.
Cryomation is still under development. “It is a potentially practicable technique and, in principle, it should be able to pass the test of the ethical framework of this opinion. But, it is still in the experimental phase and is not ready enough to be put on the market”, considers the committee.
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