If you’re committed to sustainability even after death and plan to be cremated, you’re not alone. According to the Cremation Association of North America, 60.6% of deaths were cremated in 2023.
At The Green Cremation company, a $210,000 aquamation unit performs one water cremation per day, according to owner Tom Tierney.
Flame cremation has been practiced for thousands of years. However, according to Time magazine, water cremation, a new method first used by U.S. funeral homes in 2011, is better for the environment. Its technical name is alkaline hydrolysis. Pets and farm animals have been cremated by water for years.
With aquamation, the deceased is submerged in a sealed stainless steel vessel containing a constantly circulated, heated mixture of 95% water and 5% potassium hydroxide or sodium hydroxide, chemicals found in soaps and cleaners. Depending on various factors, tissues typically dissolve within six to 14 hours. According to Smithsonian magazine, one attraction of aquamation “is that it accelerates the way a corpse naturally disintegrates in the earth.” The remaining bones are ground into a powder finer than fire-cremated ashes.
Aquamation has been legal in Connecticut since 2016. The Green Cremation company, housed in the John F. Tierney Funeral Home in Manchester, first offered it in 2024. Owner Tom Tierney said he’s a regional pioneer; no other funeral home from Maine to North Carolina provides it. I queried ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence chatbot, which confirmed his claim. Note that in Mass., N.Y., N.J., R.I. and Del., aquamation is not yet legal. Tierney charges the same price as flame cremation: $2,995 or $3,995, depending on the options chosen.
Tierney also offers aquamation services to funeral homes in the area, including Heritage and Nicholson & Carmon in Suffield.
Fire and water cremation compared
In a typical flame cremation, the deceased lies in a box or casket inside a chamber called a retort heated by natural gas, propane or diesel to 1,400º F to 1,800°F. The body is reduced to ashes after two to three hours. According to earthfuneral.com, “Each cremation produces 535 lbs of CO2, which is equivalent to a 609-mile car journey in an average-sized car. In total, cremation produces about 1.04 billion lbs of CO2 each year in the U.S. alone.” Cake, an end-of-life planning blog, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) point out that toxic chemicals, such as mercury from dental fillings and resins from artificial hips, vaporize and escape up the smokestack. Fire Engineering magazine warns that battery-operated implants, such as pacemakers and insulin pumps, must be removed to prevent explosions in the retort.
With low-pressure aquamation equipment (there are also high-pressure versions), such as Tierney’s, the water and alkaline solution is electrically heated to about 200° F for up to 16 hours. Time magazine says it requires about 300 gallons of water per body but consumes 90% less energy than fire cremation. Boxes or caskets aren’t needed to hold the body, and no CO2 emissions are generated. Battery-operated implants needn’t be removed, and harmful chemicals don’t spew into the atmosphere. Aquamation produces 20% to 30% more remains than flame-cremated ashes. According to the Cremation Association of North America, the alkaline water mixture used is sterile and discharges directly into a municipality’s sewer system.
Why aquamation is preferred
Tom Tierney said his customers choose water over flame cremation because it’s eco-friendly and gentler. In keeping with the national trends noted above, 60% to 65% of his customers choose cremation for final disposition, and 80% to 85% of those choose aquamation.
When I interviewed Tierney in early March, he was a couple of weeks shy of his first anniversary of launching his aquamation services. He had performed 194, far surpassing the 100 he had hoped for. He had also purchased a second aquamation station, which will be operating in late June.