Flameless Cremation/ Water Cremation/ Alkaline Hydrolysis Facility and Explanation

[Music] hey guys I am down here at the original aqua green water cremation or flameless cremation facility and I'm so excited it's not often that in the business that you've been in for so long you can see something that's completely new and innovative even if it's been around for a while you get your first exposure to it so I'm so excited to be here today to learn about the process to share with you guys so we're gonna go and we're gonna meet with Ryan and he's gonna tell us all about flameless cremation hello my name is Roni Katonah from aqua green dispositions we offer flameless cremation which is a greener gentler form of cremation we are located in the Chicagoland area of Illinois and we're happy to serve families from all over the country basically I was a junior in high school and my grandfather lived with us I was very close with him and he passed away and the funeral director just really helped us with the grievance and closure and at that time Junior you're kind of looking where to go with your life and do that give people the comfort that they gave us I truly be making a difference so I started researching it I went to mortuary school went to one year of college before that got my prereqs I went to war worship College really became licensed funeral director before 21 I couldn't even drink at the graduation ceremony saws the youngest one in my class and originally I wanted to own funeral homes going into school I got a graduated I worked at a funeral home and I just it just wasn't very comfortable where I was at so I was reading the trade journal and seeing that Mayo Clinic was using this process for their donated body program and once I read that I started doing research about because Mayo Clinic is the innovative everything so once I started doing research I visited the manufacturer I just truly knew this was a much better way of cremation in my opinion or you know basically process and once I seen that I just knew this would be the wave of the future it's just much better for the environment and much gentler on the body in my opinion so once I started researching it that I started working with legislation to bring regulation here in Illinois that took two years and in September of 2012 the law got passed not September of 2012 basically so you're the only one in only we wanted Illinois yes right now I think there's currently only four other or five other in the US its Maine Minnesota Florida and I think that that is correct you know what I was originally calling it alkaline hydrolysis or it and then I you know then we went to flameless cremation and flameless cremation is a very good word for it because he tells somebody and helpline not drops it no idea what my is but everybody's heard of cremation and then you hear flameless cremation or they go oh how does that work so it's a nice icebreaker to describe the process basically so I prefer a flameless cremation I know there's a lot of different terms out there for it some are trademarked and things like that so but I found that flameless cremation works very well yeah since the wake up passed in Illinois is under probation so we have had the honor of serving families from all over the US because it is cremation so we just put cremation removing from state and then we could perform the process basically so we have served funeral home basically okay so be gallant ey is why is this not more widespread the reason why it's not more widespread I believe is there's nothing wrong with the process it's more that there's just no rules and regulation in process or in in written down in my opinion is that they don't want just anybody to do it they want some rules and regulations the funeral industry is kind of a slow changing industry and unless there is a large interest or somebody actually wanting to do it I don't think they're going to actually go and change the law plus I think a lot of people are kind of waiting to see how it takes off before they make the big investment because the machines are much more than a regular retort so I think it's kind of a combination of things of why it's not widespread all over basically is one of the reasons okay so when you went through legislature what was your biggest hoop you had to jump through just learning how politics works I'll never do that again but it's just trying to educate and inform people of how the actual process works and just talking to as many people as you can to get everybody on board with it there's so much misinformation about the process that people don't know how it works once you informed them how it works they go oh that's really nice or oh I really like that we heard stolen so about this and wants you to clear up that misinformation everybody really likes the process basically the process is 95% water and 5% out lies the outlines that are used are commoner everyday household items such as beauty supplies cleaning supplies it's just a pure form and basically what happens the loved ones placed in a special machine we have and the machine will fill with water he gently circulate until all that remains is the bone remain and anybody implants so basically the body is just broken down into its most basic organic elements the bone remain is so brittle it will break down into a powder we put that into the air to give it back to the family so the family can still scared of the cremated remains keep them at home make glass make a final record anything you do with cremated remains you can do with these as well - so you achieve the same end result as regular cremation there's just no 1800 degree heat there's no fossil fuels being burned no air emissions machine does not have any huge smokestacks or anything like that so it's just a greener gentler form of cremation essentially so is that a lie that you're using it is it is potassium hydroxide and sodium hydroxide they're both naturally derived there you know found in a lot of everyday household items that you use on a typical daily basis I was truly actually amazed the company told me that and I was like that can't be true so I went around my house the store just looking and I was truly amazed at how many products had one or the other up legs you know thinks it's toothpaste of beauty products hid lotions hand creams cleaning supplies it's just very widespread a lot more than people really knows but yes they are lies they are alkalis which is one of the biggest misconception is that we use acid which in reality is applying hydrolysed so it's the chemical opposite of an acid basically okay so are you literally dumping these or is it an audience that's no is it is the way I buy the alkalis are in flake or pellet form so if anybody ever dealt with a water softener ii buy 50-pound bags of salt i buy 50-pound bags of the alkalis so they're in bead and flake form and we had them the machine before the loved ones in there and then once the machine fills it basically just circulates so okay so are you doing like an equation yes there is a formula that so everything depends off the decedent's body weight and then once I know that then I can figure out how much to add and things like that so how long does this process take from start it takes about six to eight hours where regular cremation takes about an hour and a half to three hours depending on machine body size like that so it is a lengthier process however we don't use the natural resources regular Crematory would so it is still a pretty quick process for what we use natural resource wise so the end solution is basically just made up of amino acid soaps peptides nutrients just the basic building blocks of life it's just our bodies are so nutrient dense that our bodies are broken into microscopic atoms basically so all that's left is the foam remain of metal implants and the solution is returned to the normal wastewater treatment facility just like an embalming would be however this is a hundred percent sterile there's no DNA or RNA left and all viruses diseases and products are destroyed basically within minutes regular crematories you have to run them in the morning because if you get them too hot you'll get a grease fire essentially with this process you don't have to worry about any of that you can run them any time of the day and everything like that so no are they in like a basket so they are they are placed in a stainless steel basket which another nice thing with this is that nothing comes in or out of the stainless steel basket so if somebody has jewelry on that as people get older their knuckles you can't get off before the cremation this the jewelry will be left at the end of the cremation or after the flameless cremation and it gets cleaned during the process so you could get the jewelry back to the family where regular cremation that would have been lost due to the melting 100% of your loved one back and only of your loved one you do get a little bit more cremated remains with this process just because of that fat so there's no commingling or anything like that the cremated remains are a little bit different than regular cremation they're more the whiter and color just due to not being exposed to the intense heat of cremation so they're more of a natural white ivory color and they are much finer they're more of a powdered sugar or flour consistency instead of being a campfire ash so do you use a cremulator also yes we use a regular processor just like a regular Crematory would the bones are so brittle we could do it by hand but just for time it goes much quicker with that so tenth of a cremation the carbon footprint it uses like 85% less energy than a regular Crematory it neutralizes all embalming fluids chemotherapy drugs other life time drugs the person might have been on and it releases nothing into the atmosphere so a very basic process the actual science been around since 1888 but it's just cremation was much easier you know it kind of just added up but they use it for diseased animal remains as well to the process so if there's ever an outbreak of mad cow disease or whatever they would use this process or if there's what scientists are studying new diseases viruses they basically put all the stuff in a smaller machine and gets rid of everything because it is such a sterile process that getting the word out there is not challenging but it's very hard advertising is very expensive and then also a lot of funeral homes don't like change something our homes are just getting on board with regular cremation even though it's over you know burials so it's kind of getting just your foot out there and getting the word out there once people hear about it they are very intrigued by it I can't once you've mentioned flameless criminais shinto somebody they'll ask you at least one question about it because they just doesn't make sense really but that's the way it got passed in Illinois was under cremation so we had to use cremation in the word I wanted to do kind of a roundup from my on-site visit with Orion at aqua green it was so fascinating being there we did not do any video touring back in the facility just because of privacy so we did our interview time which you've seen and then I just wanted to do this roundup of kind of information that I thought was really important and during the time together machine is all stainless steel so from the workings of the machine itself to the basket that the person is placed in and there is a bottom basket and there is a top basket and I was struck by how heavy the basket is it is you know one person lifting it would be crazy it's so heavy because it is solid stainless steel but it also makes everything sterile that's one thing that struck me as we were walking through Ryan was you know touching the machine and and touching the basket and and touching things without even thinking about it whereas in a standard cremation facility or in a prep room you would probably put on gloves but he was just touching everything so freely and I said what you know are you that confident is that everything is sterile and he said yes things are so sterile after this process that you don't aren't concerned with with touching or anything so I thought that was really interesting that that sterilization happens and it was cool to look at like the implants the hip implants and things are all polished and shiny whereas in the flame cremation everything is is tarnished and burnt just like the disc so in the regular in a regular cremation that metal disc with the number identifying who that person is and it's put through the process same thing happens with the water cremation but that little disk is all shiny and it's brand new even shinier and prettier than brand new because of the process so I thought that was really interesting we walked back in the room I was struck that there was no smell like there would be at a fire cremation facility you know the burning and the combustion type smell I didn't experience any of that and maybe when you are you discharged the liquid after the process there might be some kind of a smell but there it just there wasn't any and so that was interesting to me so the machine it some of the machines that are made for this can tilt upright so they go up which uses less water because the whole thing doesn't need to be filled with water you just fill the partion that the person is residing in or resting in and so then also all of the cremated remains at the end settle to the bottom so they don't have to be kind of collected from other areas within the the machines so when someone arrives when a body arrives at the facility they are unclothed their their clothing is removed and a plastic type covering is placed on them so they're not just exposed before they're placed in the basket and that covering disintegrates during the process so that's not part of of what is left in there but clothing would not disintegrate during the process and so this way there is less material left over when the process is done and everything is is collected out because implants are still there any fillings jewelry things that as Ryan said would melt during a flame cremation are still intact during this process so if the person had been autopsy and they had a suture in them or you know the string that they were sewn together with that would be in the machine as well with the cremated remains so those things would all be pulled out set it out then the bone is taken and actually dried before it is kind of crummy elated down into the end result cremated remains taller you are the more committed remains are going to be and men typically will yield more cremated remains than women so it doesn't matter the weight it's about the height and the gender actually which I thought was really interesting now that Ryan's often asked what is left besides the cremated remains what is the water look like what is the material look like that's in there it's often referred to as sludge or slime or goop as if it's this thick runoff consistency which is very untrue it's actually a little bit like muddy water or coffee with creamer in it that it's just a water that's a little browned that you can't see through as well so it's definitely a misconception that there's this big sludge and goopy water left afterwards I think one of the things that is almost offensively saying that they hear negative is ogram is going down the drain because it is the the body of the person that is essentially left and it is going into this you know into the drain however with fire cremation they're going up into smoke or with embalming you know the blood is being put down the drain as well it goes into the common drain so part of a person if you you know dispose of them have a final disposition that is not just direct burial into the ground is going to go somewhere else there is no put them all together unless you do just keep them together and in one body and place them in the ground so you have to be comfortable with which option you choose and saying oh we're going to put grandma down the drain is just throwing negative comments at one of the options just like you can throw negative comments every option one major question to was how large of a person can use this process because with a fire cremation you know if the it depends on the person's body size how heavy a person can be to fit in the retort same is going to be with this process however it cannot handle as large of a person around 400 pounds it's going to be maximum because the person has to fit within that basket that the person leaves in the bottom basket and a top basket is placed on top and they are placed into the machine so if that basket can't fit around somebody then it can't happen the process cannot happen so they can be a little heavier if they're taller and longer but if they're shorter and wider they will not fit into the actual machine so size is gonna be one hindrance for people selecting this option when you're looking at you know all the choices one thing that I thought was kind of cool about this because it takes such a long time as six to eight hour time frame for one cremation to happen I asked right you know are you doing these round-the-clock kind of how does this work and he said what facilities will do is you know they're locked they have alarm systems and so they can run the unit while nobody is there they can turn the unit on run it through the night and then the staff will return you know six to eight hours later in the morning to finalize the process and so I said what if what if the machine springs a leak like I'm you know I think worst case scenario and there's kind of an app for that you know a situation I never thought I would use the phrase there's an app for that but these machines are run on a computer i screen and so they can send to a person's phone just like a lot of machinery nowadays can send an alert or an alarm or a learning that the system is offline or you've lost power to the unit or you've sprung the leak and so there is this you know there's backups to backups nowadays with with so much machinery and so many systems and so that's another cool thing about this is there's this backup system to it so they can step away if they need to and that machine can still be doing its job and still facilitating the cremation I thought that was a really cool thing as technology is advancing it really affects every industry so once again I just want to say a huge thank you to Ryan I loved getting to do this and I jus cake myself and he took the time and was such a class act like he really has the compassion has the eagerness to help people and he has the heart and it's in the right place for this business so felt very aligned with him as the funeral director and as a care giver it was awesome so appreciate him showing me how things work with a flameless cremation and I'm excited to see where this goes down the road within the industry because I think giving options is so important in a world where people don't want to be on just one path and so many people don't want the standard embalming or maybe a flame cremation because maybe flame is you know maybe the flame scares you and a lot of people equate the flame to hell or to the burning and they really don't want that but this is a much gentler option for them so love the options love the education so glad I could pass it on to you guys as always if you have questions about this process post them below myself and/or Ryan will get answers to these questions for you and of course subscribe and I will see you guys on the next video bye [Music]

Channel: Kari the Mortician

Views: 271,954

Keywords: flameless cremation, cremated remains, cremulator, funeral director, water cremation, kari the mortician, cremation, funeral home, burial, alkaline hydrolysis, resomation

Id: YEePMR6X2YQ

Length: 22min 51sec (1371 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 18 2018