Scot’s alternative to burial or cremation in US launch

Sandy Sullivan, 55, of Glasgow-based Resomation Ltd, said people had already expressed their wish to be “resomated” and the first service using the technique is due to take place next month.

“We have got the machine on site and we are checking all the equipment before we get signatures from the relatives that will allow us to put the bodies through.

“There are people signing up to be resomated in the States. We know we have the bodies to test the system in the next few weeks,” Mr Sullivan added.

The launch brings to a head four years of research, testing and development by Mr Sullivan, who first encountered the process while disposing of animal carcasses in the aftermath of the BSE outbreak.

He said: “Starting a new business and changing history has not been easy. This is a very conservative market, very emotional market and a highly legislated market and there have been a lot of challenges to face.”

Its green credentials are impressive, with the process creating a third less greenhouse gas than cremation and using a seventh of the energy.

Mercury from fillings and metals from artificial limbs are safely removed during the process with the toxic particles prevented from entering the atmosphere, unlike with cremation.

“As they say here in the States, it’s a game changer. Up until now the public have really had two choices, burial in earth or cremation in fire. Now you are able to have a resomation.

“A high percentage of people are highly conscious about how they will make their exit and a lot of people want to express their environmental credentials.”

Mr Sullivan describes a resomation as “dignified, respectful and quiet”.

For mourners, the funeral runs exactly the same as a cremation until the point at which the coffin slides beyond the small curtain.

The body will earlier have been placed in a silk or wool coffin and put into a heavy, reusable wooden casket. Once the casket has disappeared from the mourners’ view, the coffin is placed in the resomator, which is filled with a pressurised solution of water and potassium hydroxide that is heated to 180ºC. The solution breaks the body down in around three hours with the dissolved body tissue flushed into the water system. The waste is sterile and contains no DNA, Mr Sullivan said.

The remaining bones are then crushed down, with relatives later handed the ashes of their loved one.

Mr Sullivan, whose firm is now part-owned by Co-operative Funeral Care, said a third resomator will be in place in the US, where the process has been legalised in several states, by Christmas.

The Strathclyde University bio-sciences graduate has long campaigned for resomations to be allowed in UK.

For now, Mr Sullivan, is happy to have been recognised in his home country with the John Logie Baird award for innovation, which he received two years ago.

He said: “To win that award, and to following in the footsteps of a Scots inventor who changed history, was unbelievable. I know we won’t see resomators in every home, but hopefully in time we will see one in every town.”