'Deep freeze' funerals set to come to the UK

"Deep freeze" funerals for people who don't want to be buried or cremated could be about to become a reality in the UK.

Plans for a "green" crematorium which freezes bodies instead of burning them are under consideration by Sevenoaks District Council in Kent.

If approved the facility, which will come complete with a chapel and a cafe, will be the first of its kind in the world.

Using a process called cryomation, which is an ecologically friendly alternative to burial or cremation, dead bodies are frozen to -200C and pulverised into powder.

Bodies are placed in a bath of pure liquid nitrogen for around an hour where they will cool to -192C (-313F). This causes it to crystalise, allowing it to then be crushed into particles by a machine.

Then the dried body is run through a process that removes any metals from the remains. This eliminates any potentially harmful minerals that might have survived from a tooth filling, prosthetic, or another bodily source.

It is considered to be more environmentally than cremating bodies as the process does not create as such harmful air pollution. 

According to its inventor Swedish biologist Susanne Wiigh-Mäsak, who spent 20 years developing the concept, it is the most eco-friendly form of burial ever devised. It comes as land available for traditional burials is running so low that graveyards are resorting to the controversial practice of reusing graves. 

In a bid to ease the pressure on graveyards the Law Commission, the Government body that reforms legislation, is drawing up new rules to allow "freeze-dried" funerals.

However the concept has been met with criticism by religious figures who have described it as "grotesque".  Anthony Kilmister, president of the Church of England’s Anglican Association, told the Daily Mail: ‘This sounds a grotesque way to treat the dead. I hope these proposals don’t become regular practice. They are very undignified."