Basic HTML Version
Page A22
JULY 2014
FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS
S ec t i on A
Time may be only a
moment so keep a
memory
Necklace Urn Pendants
for an Everlasting Keepsake.
Urns hold a portion of the cremains.
Sterling Silver and Gold pieces in stock.
ORDERS OR
CATALOG
:
cremationkeepsakes@comcast.net
877-303-3144
CREMATION KEEPSAKES
DESIGN
PRODUCTS
VENTILATION
SPECIALIZING IN
720.583.1886
Visit our idea gallery
CREMATION DIVISION
Jonas A. Zahn is the president and founder of Northwoods Cas-
ket Co., a manufacturer of environmentally friendly caskets made
in Wisconsin. He has been involved in casket-making since build-
ing a casket for his Grandfather in 2004 and now distributes sus-
tainable caskets to funeral homes throughout the United States.
Jonas has a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from
the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Jonas can be reached by
email at jonas.zahn@NorthwoodsCasket.com. Visit Northwoods
Casket online
By Jonas A. Zahn
Greening
the Funeral
Industry
ocean cargo, then air freighted to a commercial airport
in the Midwest, and finally transported by truck to our
funeral home. And if our seagrass came from a contro-
versial area where fisheries were compromised by sea-
grass farming, even better. And if our casket could be
woven by the hands of underpaid laborers (or even chil-
dren) we’d be sublime.
We planned a funeral home visitation followed by a
full service funeral the next day at a church for the add-
ed fuss of transporting our body and our families. After
the cremation we’d have our cremated remains interred
at a cemetery and another memorial service so that ev-
erybody could start their cars three times to drive to at
least three locations to pay their respects during our fu-
neral. All three of our funeral events would be thorough-
ly adorned with cut flowers—another industry rife with
environmental and energy controversies.
Our cremated remains would be interred in a concrete
cremation vault in a full-sized cemetery plot next to our
loved ones. We’d hope that our cemetery of choice used
only the finest pesticides and herbicides to maintain a
plush green lawn manicured regularly with two-stroke
oil-burning trimmers and leaf blowers. Oh, and the
trees, of course take out the trees because they leave such
a mess every fall. After all of this, we will have left behind
a larger impact after our death than in the final 2-3 years
of our living lives.
Reverse Brainstorming: What is
the most unsustainable funeral
a person could choose?
A creative thinking technique employed by Speedo re-
searchers in 2009,
reverse brainstorming
helped the team
conceptualize new designs for competitive swimwear
when the company’s revolutionary and controversial swim
suits were banned after the record-breaking 2008 Summer
Olympic games. Experts in fluid dynamics, biomechan-
ics, and psychology envisioned a combination of oversized
goggles and a body-compressing suit to create drag. Imag-
ining the opposite of what we want can help hone our cre-
ative thinking to get closer to the results we do want.
Now imagine the company of a casket builder, a physi-
cian, a funeral director, and a pharmacist along with our
wives enjoying an evening of cocktails on the patio at a lo-
cal supper club. I cannot share all of the details of our re-
verse brainstorming on the worst funeral choices we could
imagine for the environment, but the highlights are worth
repeating. As for the exercise, I invite you to try reverse
brainstorming this, or any, subject and experience the cre-
ativity that can result in a collaborative discussion among
your family, friends, or work colleagues.
We quickly listed all funeral choices that we know are
harmful in some manner to the environment or our health.
Casket? Yes. Concrete Burial Vault? Yes. Embalming? Yes.
Cremation? Yes. Burial Plot? Yes. Large grave stone? Yes. As
we explored the details we set some boundaries for ourselves.
We didn’t intend to confuse “elaborate” as the opposite of be-
ing eco-friendly. We also didn’t want to consider impractical
choices nobody would ever make (like cremating a 24-karat
gold casket).
Our reverse brainstorming helped us imagine the worst pos-
sible set of choices money could buy in funeral service. We
concluded our evening with several good laughs and each of
us took home some ideas for our own end-of-life plans. So
what might the worst possible (but reasonably probable) fu-
neral service look like from a Green perspective on funerals?
Well, there would have to be a cremation for a carbon foot-
print of about 600 lbs. of CO2, but not without a full service
funeral with our embalmed body. After all, a large number
of cremations in the U.S. are embalmed. In addition to the
carbon footprint, cremation generates emissions of nitrogen
oxides, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter,
mercury, hydrogen fluoride (HF), hydrogen chloride (HCl),
NMVOCs, and other heavy metals, in addition to Persistent
Organic Pollutants (POP). For those of us with metal im-
plants or dental fillings, the impact of incineration releases
harmful dioxins and mercury. There is an ongoing debate on
how to address mercury poisoning from cremation which
the United States EPA believes is the 3rd largest contributor
of air-born mercury contamination.
Our casket would have to be an imported Indonesian nat-
ural burial casket made from seagrass. While it is biodegrad-
able, a seagrass casket weighing 70 lbs. would have a carbon
impact of more than 2500 lbs. (even more than imported
stainless steel) after being shipped to an American port by
• Does the “recycler” operate a true refinery or is he just act-
ing as a middleman with a furnace that can melt metal?
You can test them by insisting on a tour of their facility. If
they say no or make excuses because of insurance, they are
hiding something and must be a middleman.
• How long has the refinery been in business and how long
have they been working with post-cremation metals? (It
matters!) Unfortunately, many so-called “refiners” are here
today and gone tomorrow. Let the company prove their
authenticity and longevity with Articles of Incorpora-
tion or other documentation. And don’t forget to Google
them (and their owners) as well to see what you can find.
• Does the refinery employ the latest technologies to recov-
er all of the precious metal present? Do they own either an
ICPThermal Analysis unit or an Atomic Absorption unit
for analysis? If they only have an x-ray fluoroscopy unit to
identify whether or not precious metals are present, you’re
speaking with a middleman and not a direct refiner.
• Does the refinery pay for all four major precious met-
als: gold, silver, platinum and palladium? If they say that
they do, ask how they separate the platinum group met-
als from the gold (which are present together in the alloys
used in dental implants). If they cannot quickly provide
an answer, you’re most likely speaking with a salesman,
not a refinery professional.
• What percentage are they charging for their fees? Only a
large direct refiner with additional non-funeral industry
business can afford to pay as high 98% on gold and 95%
on all other metals, accepting the smallest of margins.
• How quickly will they pay you? A true refiner can, if you
wish, pay within 24 hours of receipt for the gold in your
dental scrap and the balance of the other precious metals
within 5 to 10 working days from receipt.
• Are they EPA-compliant? Can they produce an official num-
bered Federal EPA manifest that will protect you if you’re
ever contacted by the agency? If they can’t provide such a
manifest or merely tell you that they have a letter that says
they are environmentally compliant, that’s a big red flag.
How is the Assay Determined?
Typical post-cremationmetals include dental crowns, surgical
implants and casket parts.These are generally alloys and it takes
skill to refine and separate out the precious and non-precious
metals. Some refiners are better at it than others and can recov-
er more saleable precious metals from a load of metal scrap.
An accurate assay method is essential to getting a fair re-
turn, and so is a proper assay report. It takes scientific knowl-
edge and sophisticated equipment to produce the most ac-
curate assays. The best refiners use a fire assay, which is a
complex and time-intensive process that is accurate on gold
to 1 part per 1,000. In addition to the traditional fire as-
say, the really good refiners have either an atomic absorption
unit that will yield an analysis down to a molecular content
or an ICP unit that will do the same.
A professional direct refiner will provide an assay report
that states in simple-to-understand terms the types, amounts
and purity of the metal recovered. This is important because
purity and amount affects the value and therefore reflects the
money you will get back from the refiner. The assay report
should make it easy for you to verify the amount of money
you will receive and how that refund was calculated.
Staying on the Right Side of EPA
When you recycle with a direct refiner, you protect the
environment and yourself at the same time. The Environ-
mental Protection Agency views post-cremation metal as
“hazardous waste” per Title 40 of the United States Code
of Federal Regulations. Under the EPA’s “cradle-to-grave”
concept, the crematory owner is liable for the safe, legal
and environmentally-responsible disposal of such waste. It
is an individual and a corporate liability that can even pass
to the operator/owner if he s
Everything You Need to Know About Recycling
Your Post-Cremation Metals