Howard Pickard is the Managing Director of Resomation Ltd, the company behind water cremation as it is known in the UK. Howard provides Farewells Magazine readers with an insight into water cremation and how this environmentally friendly end-of-life option may soon be available in the UK.

I am pleased to address Farewells Magazine readers on Resomation Ltd and our ongoing work to introduce water cremation to the UK. Farewells Magazine is a fresh and new resource for people who want to know more about funerals and the choices available, and in the case of water cremation, new, environmentally sustainable funeral options that are on the horizon.

Eco-friendly funerals with water cremation

For some, this may be the first you’ve heard of water cremation. It is a far more environmentally friendly process than flame cremation and could be soon available in the UK. Using water instead of flame, the body is gently turned to ashes as it would be with flame cremation. The process copies what nature does during burial but does it over a matter of hours instead of months or sometimes years, using a gentle solution of 95% water and 5% alkaline.

Since 2008 I have been working with my colleague Sandy Sullivan, the Founder of Resomation Ltd and a biochemist by trade, to introduce water cremation to the UK and it was a privilege to bring Resomation into LBBC Group in 2016. In terms of my background, I am managing director of LBBC Ltd and the fifth generation of my family to be involved with the business.LBBC, based in Leeds, creates industry-leading, quality equipment used in the aerospace, defence and automotive sectors.

Making a funeral choice can be a challenging and emotional process. Farewells readers may have experienced this in the past or will experience in the future, or as a funeral professional assisting others to make informed choices. For the majority of the 20^th century in the UK, the two major end-of-life options have been burial and flame cremation. Now, with the heightened awareness of our environmental footprint, the challenges around climate change and the ambition to become a net zero economy by 2050, the general public are looking for more eco-friendly funeral options, both in life and death.

What better way to show your consideration of the environment throughout your life than by making the decision to reflect this at the end-of-life? Water cremation provides this opportunity, and according to independent reports, by adopting water instead of flame cremation, the UK would save around 81,000 tonnes of CO2 each year, notwithstanding the significantly lower amount of energy required to perform water cremation in the form of electricity and gas.

Sandy and I have travelled both internationally and across the UK, raising awareness amongst industry experts and local authorities about the positive impact water cremation can provide to consumers. There has been significant progress in recent months with us moving closer to water cremation being available across the UK.

From presenting at recent funeral industry events and having daily conversations with the general public, I have seen that interest is growing in water cremation because it responds to the environmental challenges we face. This is reflected by the increased media coverage across the mainstream media, with national newspaper titles introducing water cremation to wider audiences.

New eco-friendly funeral options

Across the funeral industry we are seeing an increase in green and eco-friendly funeral options with the likes of green burial and even human composting – a process where the body is transformed into usable soil to grow new life – being made legal in the US state of Washington.

We have been making major progress towards the introduction of water cremation here in the UK. The successful results of an independent study into the water cremation process and its safety, involving Yorkshire Water, the Federation of Burial and Cremation Authority (FCBA) and Middlesex University have recently been made public. The results show that water cremation poses no concern for sewer systems, wastewater treatment works and their related operations and receiving water quality.

Following this study, the UK’s first ‘wastewater consent to discharge’ has been granted for the water cremation process which opens the way for water cremation consent applications from across the country. This brings us a step closer to families being able to choose water cremation and we look forward to providing further updates soon.

Whilst we are making encouraging progress in the UK, water cremation is already available abroad. It is already permitted in 20 US states and four Canadian provinces and adoption is growing across North America. Here in Europe, the Netherlands are set to introduce water cremation within the next 12 months, and on a daily basis we receive enquiries from other European countries such as France, Spain and Belgium, as well as interest from further afield, with places including China and South America. Attitudes are certainly changing, which is exciting to see.

This is a significant time for innovation in the funeral industry, and I encourage Farewells Magazine readers to stay tuned for updates on our work to introduce this sustainable funeral option here in the UK. Post-COVID-19 we will resume holding Open Days at our headquarters in Pudsey, Leeds, where people can learn more about the process and it’s benefits to the environment. For further details and announcements of upcoming events please visit: https://resomation.com/news and via social media at: www.twitter.com/watercremation,www.facebook.com/watercremation/ and www.instagram.com/resomationltd/