Aquamation: Desmond Tutu laid to rest through eco-friendly cremation method

Anti-apartheid icon Desmond Tutu was laid to rest in a private memorial service on Sunday at the St. George’s Cathedral in Cape Town, South Africa. Tutu’s close friends and family paid their respects at the service.

What sparked global intrigue and admiration was the eco-friendly alternative to cremation of the archbishop. According to the Anglican Church of South Africa, Tutu was laid to rest through aquamation, a sustainable cremation process which involves an amalgamation of temperature, water flow, and alkalinity to speed up the body’s decomposition process.

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Tutu, who strongly advocated environmental preservation and rights through speeches and articles, had wished for an environment-friendly alternative for his cremation. In 2007, Tutu published an op-ed article in The Guardian, titled ‘This Fatal Complacency’, shedding light on the repercussions of climate change in the global south, specifically in grassroots communities. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate would urge many to take small steps to help deal with the climate change crisis. The archbishop wanted his funeral service to be simple and modest, just like his way of living, and requested that he be laid in the “cheapest available” pine coffin.

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According to Bio-Response Solutions, a US-based company with expertise in aquamation, the process involves the corpse to be laid to rest in soil. This eco-friendly alternative is said to consume far less energy, nearly 90% lesser than the conventional flame cremation. Furthermore, aquamation does not effuse toxic greenhouse gasses.

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According to the Cremation Association of North America (CANA), alkaline hydrolysis is a form of flameless cremation which involves resting the body inside an airtight chamber, consisting of a solution made from alkaline chemicals and water. After the body is laid, the chamber is then heated, which liquifies the remains, leaving just a single bone behind.

According to the official website of CANA, this process of cremation can leave up to 32% more remains compared to other flammable cremation methods, thus sometimes requiring a bigger urn.