Church of England may allow human composting and water cremation

A typical crematorium will send between 160kg and 190kg of CO2 into the atmosphere for each cremation

More people in the Uk wanr eco-friendly funerals. File picture (PA Archive)

The Church of England may soon allow human composting’ at Christian funerals as part of the religious institution’s drive towards net zero.

Bishops are considering a consultation group to assess the "theological considerations" of eco-friendly body disposal. This could include human composting – where microbes are used to break bodies down into compost – and water cremation, also known as alkaline hydrolysis, a process that breaks down the body’s tissues, leaving the person’s bones, which are turned into a fine white ‘ash’.

A typical crematorium will send between 160kg and 190kg of CO2 into the atmosphere for each cremation it carries out —the rough equivalent of driving a car for 470 miles.

Only burial and cremation are currently available in the UK, but eco-conscious funeral policy holders and mourners are seeking out alternatives, many of which are used abroad.

In 2020, the General Synod, the church’s legislative body, agreed to set a target of carbon neutrality by 2030.

In a written question to the Synod ahead of this month’s conference, which runs until Thursday, the Reverend Canon Andrew Dotchin, the Synod’s representative on the churches’ funerals group, asked if the church had any "theological objections" to either water cremation or human composting.

The question read: “The late Rt Revd Desmond Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town, instructed that his body should not be buried or cremated but undergo resomation (alkaline hydrolysis).

“Bearing in mind the Church of England’s care for the bereaved, as well as our commitment to net zero carbon together with the environmental costs of current and future means for the disposal of human remains, are there … any theological objections to the use of resomation … or human composting.

The Bishop of Lichfield replied that there has not been any formal theological consideration of resomation or human composting but suggests Reverend Dotchin might help to organise a small consultation including members of the Faith and Order and Liturgical Commissions to look at the question.

Resomation is legal in the UK, but there are currently no crematoria where you can choose this option, although some start-ups are trying to get up and running.