People could soon be able to choose to be boiled and flushed down the drain instead of cremated or buried.

A consultation on funerary methods by the Law Commission is proposing legal approval of alkaline hydrolysis and human composting as new ways of disposing of people’s bodies.

Alkaline hydrolysis uses water, alkaline chemicals, heat and pressure to break down a body into liquid and pieces of bone, which can take between two and 18 hours.

Bones and teeth survive the process and are ground into a powder to be returned to the family, while the rest of the body is broken down into liquid, which can be sent to the sewers.

These funerals have been known as a water burial or resomation, but have colloquially been dubbed “flushed away” and “flush and bone” rituals.

The Law Commission s

See Full Page