In Baltimore, a new trend in eco-friendly death care practices has emerged at the Joseph H. Brown Funeral Home, where "water cremation," or alkaline hydrolysis, presents an alternative to traditional cremations. Offering the only such service in Maryland, funeral home owner Joseph Brown is looking to provide "options that are cleaner, greener, kinder and gentler, not only to the environment but to the body as well," according to his statement detailed by Maryland Matters.
Yet, despite being a greener option, water cremation costs more than its fiery counterpart, with a price tag of about $5,000 compared to around $1,700 for fire-based cremation. Joseph Brown, who has performed just one water cremation, explained, as per Maryland Matters, that he believes "as it begins to scale, that we can be able to bring that price down."
Mark Conway, Baltimore City Councilman, has been pushing for legislation to limit the locations of traditional crematoriums in the city, given Baltimore's high asthma rates. This comes alongside residents' concerns about a proposal by another local funeral home to build a new crematorium, worried about the potential reduction in air quality for their community.
Water cremation involves submerging a body in a water mixture warm to 140-160 degrees and adding potassium hydroxide to break down the body's soft tissue. "What that does is it disassociates the proteins," Brown elucidated in an interview with Maryland Matters. Brown acknowledged the high cost but is hopeful about the future of this alternative method, proclaiming, "It's a 'bougie' cremation. Soon it will become more of the norm."
The ecological benefits of alkaline hydrolysis are significant compared to traditional cremation. The Cremation Society of North America estimates that one fire cremation can release about 524 pounds of carbon dioxide into the air. In contrast, water cremation does not have these emissions, leading to a greatly reduced environmental impact. "A lot of people I've spoken with are very excited about it, never heard of it, and using water and chemicals is actually more of a gentle cremation versus the fire cremation," Crematory supervisor Antwon stated, per WYPR, foreseeing good for the community.
After the water cremation process concludes, the fluids are drained into the wastewater system, leaving skeletal remains similar to conventional flame cremation. Brown assures that the watery effluent is sterile, with no detectable DNA or other human signatures, and that it is welcomed at the local wastewater treatment facility. As Brown put it in an interview with WYPR, "I don't recommend drinking it, but it goes right out of the system, and it causes no harm."
