Your Funeral Guy Exclusive: Battle Of The New Green Cremation Machine |Alkaline Hydrolysis? Cryomation

CycledLife alkaline hydrolysis Machine

Will The cremation of the future  Green Cremation  be Alkaline Hydrolysis or Cryomation? The next cultural shift in disposing of the dead will  be Green Cremation.

There are two processes that are on the horizon one is called Alkaline Hydrolysis, where water pressure heat and alkaline combine to accelerate decomopostion of the body. Ashes are returned to the Family at the end of this process.

The other process Called Cryomation where the body is freeze dried and then broken down into an ash like substance to be returned to the family- Charles Cowling at the Good Funeral Guide has been covering this.

Snippet from the Cryomation website.

The process itself uses Liquid Nitrogen to freeze the body to -196 degrees C until the body is brittle. The body is then fragmented, foreign metal objects removed, and body materials returned to the process. The remains are then freeze dried under a range of vacuumed conditions to remove the moisture. Our process (patent pending) ensures that the final powder is sterile and 100% free of all bacteria & viruses. An accelerated composting process further reduces the mass and means that what is returned can itself, generate and sustain life.

via www.cryomation.co.uk

There is a computer graphic video of the process, but no real machine pictured.

The Cryomation Machine has been demonstrated in the UK. The larger resomation machines have been in use in Medical Schools in the US for the disposition of Medical waste and cadavers.

There are 4 players in the world racing to put this machine out. Eco-Green Cremation System, BioSafe Engineering, CycledLife and Resomation Ltd.

Resomation LTD  has claimed to ship a resomation machine for Funeral Industry Use to it’s distributor Matthews International In the USA in 2009. Almost A year later NOW  however the Machine is NOT INSTALLED.

Cryomation(R) says they have run a demonstration.I have seen a Cycled Life(R) demonstration with my own eyes. I  also have all seen BioSafe Engineering Machines.

I have verified that Cycle life is shipping a green cremation machine to the funeral industry. Eco-Green cremation systems claims to be shipping cremation Machines

I have pictures of the machines from all the players in the green cremation machine race  except Eco-Green Cremation System, Inc and Cryomation(R). It raises the question, Do either of these even have a machine yet? These folks may not like the question, but they are not releasing evidence of where they are at with there machines and bio cremation.

What are these men behind the curtain  at Eco-Green Cremation System, Inc and Cryomation(R) , doing? Even the little dog Toto cannot tell what these “Wizards of Oz” are doing.

It could be though that we  get up one morning though and any of the four players in alkaline hydrolysis or the cryomation folks may have multiple green cremation machines working in the funeral industry around the world.

Funeral Industry|Funeral News|Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy.

Resomation Machine Pic from the UK( Resomation LTD)

Note: Promessa is a company that uses liquid nitrogen in a an organic burial, Cryomation(R) is a company that takes the process  takes the process a step further in creating ash from the liquid nirtogen process. This differs from cryonics which keeps a body continually frozen for future restoration.

Green Funeral?-Ask Your City Cemetery to approve|yourfuneralguy

Do you want to have a green funeral?some are going to their local city cemetery simply asking them  to make it happen. Many times in life we simply do not  receive what we want want simply because we do not ask.

It may be true in death as well, in regards to green burial.  At last it has happened in Ashland, Oregon.

Residents who want to bury loved ones in an environmentally sensitive way in Ashland no longer have to place the casket or shroud inside a concrete or metal liner or vault.

The Ashland City Council voted on Tuesday to allow such “green” burials in city cemeteries.

Previously, the Ashland Municipal Code required the use of liners or vaults to prevent settling of the ground at the grave site. City staff members who manage city cemeteries said they expect some settling to occur with green burials, but that the problem isn’t anything they can’t handle.

The city of Ashland made the change because it has been receiving requests from residents that green burials be allowed, said Ashland Public Works Director Mike Faught.

“It’s a step forward for those folks who want a natural burial, without having to have a concrete vault,”

via www.dailytidings.com

So if you want a green burial assert yourself. In Ashland Oregon they Have Put Wilbert Vault on Notice.

Funeral Industry|Funeral News|Funeral blog by Your Funeral Guy

Calgary City Cemetery GPS Headstones and Green Burials-YourFuneralGuy

It has been reported that the  City Cemetery in Calgary Alberta  now has a new strategy  for the Future. The strategy consists of GPS Markers as headstones and green burials.

GPS Markers as Heastones and Green Burials are making natural burial grounds a reality.

The cemetery manager has stated that this is the plan for the future.

Green Burials occur in a an open field with a cardboard box or a shroud. There is no embalming chemicals put into the ground. GPS(Global Positioning systems)grave  markers are not visual above ground. They let out a  a radio signal  so they can  be located with a global positioning device(GPS). These options make the natural burial ground of the grasslands a reality.

“CALGARY (CBC) – For the first time in 70 years, the City of Calgary has a new strategy for the city’s soon-to-be-full cemeteries: green burials and GPS locators for finding the dead.

Four of Calgary’s five municipal cemeteries are full, and officials estimate the Queen’s Park burial lands, which opened in 1940, will run out of space within 10 years.”-via www.cbc.ca

As  time goes on Cemeteries  will embrace the GPS headstones and green burials because people(especially baby boomers) want these options and they are less expensive.

GPS Markers as headstones  will change the face of the cemetery in the United States. It is all made possible with the new technology of geolocating.

Funeral Industry|Funeral News| Funeral blog by Your Funeral Guy

A First:Municipal not for profit-green cemetery-yourfuneralguy

European|Green Cemetery(getty images rf)

A section of a Non-Profit Municipal Cemetery has been put aside for Green Burials, in Lawrence, Kansas. For profit geen burial grounds are growing in the United States. This is the first type of this kind of cemetery for Kansas, and maybe the United States. Green burial grounds are less expensive to maintain and can be a cost advantage for municipalities.

Embalming fluid and metal caskets are prohibited. The Oakhill cemetery is fairly close to Kansas City. Most green cemeteries are located quite a distance from the metropolitan areas. Transportation for out of city green funeral  can raise funeral cost.

Funeral Industry|Funeral Cost Blog  by your Funeral Guy.

Source: KansasCity.com

Your Funeral Guy: More reports of Lower Funeral Cost

The economic down turn is turning in lower cost funerals. This is happening mainly through the lower cost funeral option of Cremation. This is really nothing new. Cremation has been trending upward as a low cost funeral option. Americans are watching what they spend on everything even funerals. Pat Lynch Treasurer of the NFDA -National Funeral Directors Association  has recently contradicted Statements in the Press(-i.e. Fox News that the Funeral Industry is recession  proof.)

“Pat Lynch, treasurer for the National Funeral Directors Association — and a funeral home director in suburban Detroit, said there’s no truth to the belief that funeral homes are immune to economic downturns.” This according to Business Week.

It also has been reported that people are selling burial plots and opting for lower cost funerals. There is a place on the internet to help you with this.

According to Maura Judkis, a producer for US News and World Report states that the economic downturn is forcing folks into the lower cost funeral and maybe greener? Cremation option.

“Traditional burial is still the most common choice for the deceased, but that may change in this economic climate – families who have been affected by the downturn are finding that cremation is a less costly way to say farewell to their loved ones. It’s just another example of how the recession can unintentionally make us greener.”

Baltimore Sun newspaper reports a trend toward cremation in the last year, according to the government, the time the recession started.

There is a trend toward Green Funerals as mentioned often here. It is not main street but folks are asking for the green burial.  Some are doing full green funerals with no embalming , vault, traditional casket in a woodland.

Last but not least some Funeral Homes are discounting goods and  services. Funeral Homes are Discounting Services but most Funeral Directors do not admit to this practice. It just can affect profit margins too much.  An example has been  reported in the press at postcrescent.com.

Be sure to let me know how you lowered your funeral expenses. Remember it is quite possible to come in under the average cost of a Funeral. This is made clear from all the reports in the press. One must be persistent ask questions and negotiate.

Blog by Your Funeral Guy, Author, Funeral Director, State of Illinois

Your Funeral Guy: The Average Funeral Cost of Traditional Funeral is over $8000.00 USD

The Average Cost of a Funeral in 2008 was $8000.00 USD +and maybe more. This year the NFDA  raised the average funeral cost in 2006 to $7,323.00 Dollars. This has been mentioned at this blog. Now how can this happen? The National Funeral Directors Association.collects statistics from funeral homes and funeral directors around the United States. If they receive more information they change the numbers.

Cost for traditional Funerals has been trending upward.  but at the same time lower cost funerals such as green funerals, cremation and direct burial are also growing to  the broad prosperity of all. This also has sent the traditional funeral cost upward. It has cut into funeral home profits.

So after much research I am lowballing the average cost of a funeral in 2008 to be $8000.00 USD.

The Over 50 Website declares the same average funeral cost. “the average US funeral costs over $8,000 as far as I can deduce from the sparse information that is published, and it seems very easy for funerals to cost from $10,000 to $20,000 or more!”

More information on how to lower average funeral cost can be found here:

Rest in Peace: Insider’s Tips to the Low Cost Less Stress Funeral

Your Funeral Guy.

Your Funeral Guy: Green Funeral is Low Cost, What if all the Funerals in the US were Green?

2005 is the year

287, 716,000 is the US population in 2005

2,432,000 deaths in US  2005

Now what if all these funerals were green?

Green Funerals are  low cost funerals.

Green funerals and  natural woodland burials are one way to lessen the impact of traditional funeral environmental harm.

While death is not an easy subject, keeping ethics  and convictions going forward, a green funeral  is a low environmental impact one. After all, if it is about time to go, why not go green?  So let us keep the Planet Green.

# 56 million: The approximate number of people that die on the planet in a year.

# 50 million: Trees that are cut down in India each year for funeral pyres(cremation). This releases 8 million tons of carbon dioxide.

# 200: The number of green and woodland burial sites in the U.K.

According to National Geographic, and the Scientific American

# 30 million board feet of casket-

American funerals are responsible yearly for the felling of 30 million board feet of casket wood (some of which comes from tropical hardwoods),

#90,000 tons of steel,

#1.6 million tons of concrete for burial vaults,

#800,000 gallons of embalming fluid, this cancer causing formaldehyde released into the environment. Is embalming worth this cost?

#1,000- to $2,000 the cost of a green funeral.

A traditional burial costs $7,323.00 USD according to the NFDA.

Even cremation is an environmental disaster, with a crematory putting many  toxic substances into the atmosphere, including dioxin, hydrochloric acid, sulfur dioxide, and more carbon dioxide.

I hate to disappoint folks  but cremation is not green. Cremation is not a green funeral and there is many a funeral home that calls it green.

What if all the funerals on the planet or  in the U.S. were green?

More information can be found on this funeral director’s blog.

Sources National Geographic, Planet Green, National Funeral Directors Association as well a the experience of

Your Funeral Guy.

Your Funeral Guy: Green and Natural Burials are on the way.

A natural burial(or green burial site ) site is woodland in which the dead are buried, wrapped in a shroud or put in coffins-caskets- of pine, cardboard or some other biodegradable material. The site is dedicated a conservation area. The grave sites bear small markers  made with flush stones to the ground. Sometimes a GPS marker is in involved.

Aside from green or natural cemeteries, another popular green alternative is the evolving into artificial ocean reefs. Since 1998,  Eternal Reefs(Atlanta) has taken cremated ashes and mixed them with concrete to create reef balls, which weigh between 400 and 4,000 pounds. The balls get placed  in special  places in the ocean  creating artificial reefs. Coral polyps, anemones and underwater creatures attach themselves to these  balls over time.

A reef  ball memorial starts  from $995  according to Eternal Reefs (Atlanta).

Home funerals are another option. Green and  home funerals go together. A Funeral at home take us back to before the Civil War when Americans  had home funerals handling  and burying their Loved Ones. This also enhances the grief recovery process.

In Texas, folks can act as the funeral directors, retrieve a death certificate and have a  home funeral with a  burial  in their backyard if the city,county permits it. Be sure to check with your state and local authorities to pursue  this option.

Green and Natural Funerals and Burials are on the way. In almost all cases they are a lower cost funeral.

Be sure to lower your funeral expenses.

Your Funeral Guy,

Your Funeral Guys blog.

Your Funeral Guy: Newsweek article creates Funeral, Cost, FCA controversy.

On July 3rd 2008, Newsweek did an article creating a funeral, funeral cost and FCA- Funeral Consumer Alliance stir. The picture of the biodegradable casket gives you a look at future funeral cost. Joshua Slocum of the Funeral Consumers Alliance also did a great Job handling comments after the article appeared. Slocum is a true Funeral Futurist. The article is Called “A Serious Undertaking.”

Quoting from the Newsweek Article:

“the annual conference of the Funeral Consumers Alliance, a watchdog group for the death-care industry that advocates simple, personalized and environmentally sound alternatives to the typical American burial.”

Joshua Slocum is exactly correct when the article quotes him:

“I want people to be shocked,” Slocum says, “that in some states, the body belongs to the mortuary by state law. And once a funeral director has got a body in the door, it’s over.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/144482

As stated in the Book Rest in Peace Insiders Tips to the Low Cost Less Stress Funeral Once the Funeral Director puts your loved one on the mortuary cot, The funeral cost clock starts running.

Two books can help here with the average cost of a funeral.

Grave Matters: A Journey Through the Modern Funeral Industry to a Natural Way of Burial by Mark Harris

Rest in Peace: Insider’s Tips to the Low Cost Less Stress Funeral by R Brian Burkhardt and Matt Bacak

Your Funeral Guy, R Brian Burkhardt, Funeral Director, Author, Blogger, State of Illinois

Be sure to let me know how you achieved low funeral cost.

Your Funeral Guy:Funeral Cost too High in the USA!(last 2 weeks)

Your Funeral Guy:Funeral Cost too High in the USA!(last 2 weeks). Funerals always cost too much in any situation because a person is involved. But the death of these folks is too much funeral cost to the  world. May they all rest in peace. All three.

First there was the Tim Russert  Wake and Memorial Service:
The funeral cost to the nation was too great.
Maria Shriver read the poem….The Little Ship in Washington DC. Bruce Springsteen was front and center.
It would be wrong not to repeat it. It is one of the best funeral poems ever written.

The Wife of the Actor and  California governor “Arnold” gave a great funeral poem.

“The Little Ship”

I stood watching as the little ship sailed out to sea. The setting sun tinted his white sails with a golden light, and as he disappeared from sight a voice at my side whispered, “He is gone”.

“But the sea was a narrow one. On the farther shore a little band of friends had gathered to watch and wait in happy expectation. Suddenly they caught sight of the tiny sail and, at the very moment when my companion had whispered, “He is gone” a glad shout went up in joyous welcome, “Here he comes!”

A Good post on this is here:
http://www.tellinitlikeitis.net/2008/06/maria-shriver-poem-at-tim-russerts-funeral-service.html

Then there was the  funeral song “over the rainbow”. People walked out of his memorial service to this Rainbow. Was this a blessing from the man upstairs(apologies to atheists if this does not make you a believer nothing will)

If you do not cry during this Video! You are not human. Barack Obama and John McCain sat together at this event. If you ever click on a Your Funeral Guy, funeral cost link click on this one!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBddo1RGiJU

Then there was the Tasha Tudor death: The great literary illustrator original  green lady died.
Kids will miss her. Even guys read “The Secret Garden.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/22/AR2008062202026.html”

As if this was not enough we also lost to funeral cost, George Carlin the modern Free Speech almost pornographic comedian. The famous 7 words guy.

Even Jerry Seinfeld is coming back to honor him.

In the 2 weeks Funeral Cost has been too high in the USA!
May all Rest in Peace.
Now there is more funeral story and history in Rest in Peace.

Rest in Peace: Insider’s Tips to the Low Cost Less Stress Funeral by R Brian Burkhardt and Matt Bacak