More and more funeral services in Denmark are being asked to freeze-dry their 'clients' instead of the more traditional burial or cremation services.
Michael Ørskov and Dennis Tobiasen, who each operate four funeral service businesses in Zealand, both said that people inquire about the freeze-dry option a handful of times every month.
“People like the idea of giving energy back to the earth,” Ørskov told Metroxpress newspaper. ”It will provide energy to the rosebush or tree planted above.”
READ MORE: More Danish funerals leaving out God
Swedes going for it
Freeze-drying the deceased, a process know as 'promession', is illegal as of now, but Tobiasen estimated that up to 20 percent of Danes would embrace the option should they be permitted to.
The freeze-dry concept comes from Sweden, where a law change this year is expected to legalise the alternative burial method. But despite the Swedes showing the way, the Danish funeral service secretariat Danske Bedemænd didn't think the option was realistic in Denmark in the future.
The Danish law states that a deceased person must be either buried or cremated.
Fact Box
The process of promession:
– The deceased is frozen at -18 degrees for a week and a half
– The coffin containing the deceased is lowered into liquid nitrogen at -196 degrees, leading the body to become more porous and fragile
– Via slight vibrations, the body and coffin are shaken into organic powder
– Water is removed from the powder under high pressure, before mercury and non body parts such as pacemakers are removed
– The remaining 25 kilograms of powder is placed in a biologically degradable urn, which is buried about 30 centimetres under the surface of the earth
– Within one year, the urn and powder has transformed into pure top soil
