Denmark is keen to show off its green credentials ahead of the massive UN summit on climate change to be held in Copenhagen in December. The progressive Nordic nation is well ahead of the pack with its grants for energy-saving home improvements and thriving market for organic food and home products.
But one sector where Denmark may be taking the concept of recycling too far is in its mortuaries. The Economist reports that the country’s crematorium association has revealed it has been making decent money on the side by recycling metal parts salvaged from dead citizens who are cremated.
Allan Vest, the chairman of the association, told the magazine that cremated bodies often leave behind items like hip and knee replacements that can be sold as scrap metal. Since 2006, Denmark’s 31 crematoriums have raked in more than DKK 75,000 from nearly 5,000 kilograms of salvaged metal that was sold to a recycler in the Netherlands.
Denmark’s government altered the law to allow this form of recycling in 2005. It drew the line at allowing spare mechanical body parts to be used in works of art, but selling the metal for scrap is perfectly legal. The law does not require that the crematoriums tell the relatives of the deceased if their loved ones’ hip is sold for scrap either. But so far this has not proved a contentious issue.
[…] Are Danes taking ‘green’ too far by recycling corpses? […]
The recycling of metals recovered from crematoria is common practice here in the UK as well. Similarly, there is no requirement to inform relatives of the deceased and similarly no one cares.
…and we dare call this “progressive”??????
FIRST OF ALL.
IT IS INCREDIBLE HOW JOURNALIST ( OR THOSE WHO TRY TO BE) PUT LIES AS THE TITTLE OF THEIR ARTICLES. THERE IS NO RECYCLING OF CORPSES HERE. SOME PEOPLE, AND ONLY SOME, DO HAVE SOME PARTS OF METAL THAT HAVE BEEN PUT INTO THEIR BODIES. THOSE ARE NOT NATURAL PARTS OF THEIR BODIES BUT PIECES THAT HELP THE BODY TO KEEP ITS NORMAL FUNCTION. AFTER CREMATION THE BODY GOES AWAY BUT THOSE PIECES OF METAL, SOMETIMES AS SMALL AS A GRAIN OF RICE ( IMPAST ON THE TEETH) DO REMAIN. THEY COULD THROW THEM AWAY, BARRY THEM, OR EVEN SOME PEOPLE WOULD LIKE TO KEEP THOSE THINGS. WELL. IT WOULD BE GOOD TO GIVE TO PEOPLE THE CHANCE OF DECIDING IF THEY WANT TO KEEP THOSE PIECES BECAUSE THEY HAVE A PERSONAL VALUE FOR THEM. JUST THE SAME AS CLOTHES, SHOES AND OTHER PERSONAL OBJECTS. I PERSONALLY SOMETIMES WEAR SOME OF MY GRANDGRANDFATHERS CLOTHES. BUT I DON´T THINK IT WOULD BE TOO MUCH TO DESIRE TO KEEP HIS MOLAR IMPAST.
> Mark – the Dasish movie should then be “The Green Butchers” – one of many great Danish movies
“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUEvBM82DzI”
it makes me think of the movie “soylent green”in which
bodies were recycled to food.
very strange thing to do.
Soylent Green…