The problem of space, particularly in our cities, is forcing a rethink of the way we bury our dead
Kevin Hartley had worked in cemeteries and funeral services for 15 years when, at a party in 2007, someone asked what his plans were for his body when he died. He contemplated the furnace he had operated, preheated to 1,000C, from which he raked ash and bone onto a tray before pouring them into a cremulator. “Think of a tumble dryer,” he says, “and you put heavy steel balls into that and tumble the ashes.” What you’re left with is a greyish powder.
“Cremation is an industrial process and to imagine doing that to my body was out of the question,” he says. “That left burial, but I thought, ‘Do I want to be buried in a chipboard box with a false veneer that’s lined in plastic, so that I never really have my body return to the earth?’”
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