Friday 12th November 10 Visit to Promessa UK

Today was something I'd been looking forward to for a while, meeting one of my heroes, Susanne Wiigh-Mäsak, who has invented and developed a greener alternative to cremation and burial called Promession.

I became aware of this process whilst working with Justin Rowlatt, BBC Newsnight's 'Ethical Man', during filming in my garden, and when I found out more about it I just knew that it was a big improvement on the 'traditional' methods of disposing of human bodies when someone dies.  For those of you who don't want to visit http://www.novaterium.com/ which my Canadian colleague Rory Rickwood and I have written, where we discuss the issues in more detail, the basics are:
Cremation uses fossil gas, lots of it, to reduce the body to ash, but releases fossil CO2, polluting oxides of nitrogen, mercury from fillings and other undesirables. About 70% of UK funerals are cremations.
Burial, which may seem like an eco friendly option with the 'dust to dust' bit, but means the corpse decays anaerobically and this releases methane, CH4, a greenhouse gas. The grave may also release liquids and chemicals from the often-used embalming process, which could escape into groundwater or watercourses. Burial also uses up valuable land which then isn't available for food growing or housing, etc.
'Natural' or 'Green Burial' is a version of traditional burial, often in a rural area, often with trees being planted, often without embalming and with a cardboard or willow/bamboo casket, but if placed any deeper than a metre under the ground, it is highly likely that the remains will release methane.
Promession is a fully automated process which renders the body to a state where it can be safely interred in the top 50cm of the soil where it composts aerobically.  The body is frozen with liquid nitrogen, a waste product of the oxygen industry, and because it is then brittle, is able to be shattered into tiny fragments by means of a vibrating table.  These are subjected to a vacuum which removes all the water, leaving a material which is similar to instant coffee granules.  The casket is mechanically chipped. Metals such as fillings are automatically removed.  All the biodegradable remains are put in a small biodegradable casket which may then be interred, or cremated, or, I suppose, the contents scattered in a favourite place, like the contents of a cremation urn.  The aerobic decomposition means that a small amount of CO2 is released, rather than methane, and the resultant humus is a perfect medium for plant roots to gain nutrients from.

So, Susanne spent the best part of two decades developing this process, and it is now ready to be licenced to be used.  She has now given the job of promoting it in this country to Promessa UK, which comprises a couple, Nathan and Meredyth, and a friend of theirs, Willem, who is a business advisor, and today I went to Cambridge on the train to meet the team. 

I cycled to York station and got a day return for £66, and then met Edward for 10 minutes to sign some York in Transition cheques.  I got on the 11.35 train to Peterborough.  I was already sitting down when an old colleague of mine, Gary, from Local Agenda 21 days a decade ago, got on... and we had a good chat, and the other person at the table, a nice woman called Jill joined in too.  I love trains for these conversations.

I had another interesting meeting with a young illustrator on the Peterborough to Cambridge train. I was amazed how well she could draw on a moving train!

I'd memorised the route to East Road from the station, but on the way, next to a bin at a bus stop, I found an unopened bag of 4 Tesco's Croissants, reduced to 26p.  I can't pass by a 'freegan' opportunity, even in a different city, so I picked this up.  I think it must have fallen out of a shopping bag.  I put it in my bag.

East Road was only about 10 or 15 minutes walk.  The office block where I was due to meet the team was easy to find.  I was early and they were still at lunch, so I read my NewScientist in one of the comfy chairs in the lobby.  Then they all came back, about 8 people, some of whom said their goodbyes and disappeared, and Nathan led the way to a nearby pub.  I was really happy to meet Susanne, who is as keen a composter as I am. She has fewer compost bins than me, but has been composting for longer. 

Over coffees in the bar, we had wide-ranging conversations.  I was pleased to meet Peter, Susanne's husband, and got on really well with Meredyth and Nathan, who have a long history of voluntary work, low carbon living mixed with international travel. We talked about some research which needs to be done (and could be done by me, or perhaps be overseen by me?) and a little about the Promession process itself.  We chatted about all sorts of different subjects including Paul Stamets' mushroom cultures, the failings of drug prohibition, prostitution and non-monogamous relationships, free thinkers and autism, hot composting versus cold composting, aerobic decomposition versus putrefaction, Effective Micro-organisms and much much more.

The company is still in the early stages of being set up so we didn't talk much about that.  They seem keen to have my input and want me to work with them, but it's too soon to talk about anything concrete such as roles, hours, pay or anything.  They have asked for my CV and references, so I think that once I provide those, we'll be in a better position to move forward.  All I know is that I am a keen supporter of this technology, and will do what I can to help introduce it, to help people understand why it is better than the alternatives.  I'd be very happy to work with Nathan and Meredyth, and feel honoured to be associated with Susanne.  I always admire innovators... especially if in the field of sustainable development and composting!

Our chatty social came to a close at 6pm, and Meredyth gave me a shoulder bag with the Promessa Organic Burial logo on.  Nice!  I walked back to the station, getting a 99p tub of hommous on the way, which I thought would go well with the croissants.

The train connections were good, nice chat with a Dutch prostate cancer PhD researcher from York University called Paula, and on the York train I had two croissants with hommous whilst chatting to an oil company lawyer.  I got home on the dot of 9pm, feeling amazed, wowed, happy, buoyant and very lucky.

I was just in time to watch another of my heroes, David Attenborough, about the evolution of life as explained through fossils.  I had a can of cider, and after midnight, a bottle of beer which has sat on a shelf collecting dust for a year.  A happy evening. 

Thank you Promessa, you have made my day... and more!

Monday 4th October 10

Quite a good day, despite my having a headache for much of it.  Before lunchtime I did a bit of leafleting, just an hour and a half, and met one of my Press friends, investigating a shed fire which might have been something more sinister.  I spent an hour and a half on that round, and at the end, popped into see Debbie and spent 15 minutes with her... then lunch, then assorted stuff around the house.

Probably the most interesting thing today was that I had a conversation on the phone with Susanne Wiigh-Mäsak , the inventor of Promession.  I'd found an interesting website about high speed, high temperature aerobic decomposition of food waste, called Vertal.  Susanne saw the link and wanted to talk to me about the process, and share her opinion about it, which was very interesting.  We then discussed the latest developments regarding Promession, and it's UK-based competitor Cryomation.  See this blog post for a description of some of the conference last week that I couldn't go to. I wish I'd been able to go... but I was at a York Rotters meeting.  We then had a chat about another 'green funeral' development which I'm involved with, and I was surprised with her feedback on that, but I respect her views as a biologist and as someone who's been researching biological disposal of bodies for years.  I was really glad to have this conversation.

At 6pm, my Green Party friend Will arrived, and he took a load of leaflets and went to deliver them in one of the areas of Hull Road Ward.  I had my tea, pasta and cauliflower with a few other bits, and at 7, went down the garden to find some apples and take them to the YorkLETS meeting. This was, as usual, at the Seahorse Hotel, and the attendance was a 100% increase on last month... there were four of us!  A good meeting, we made a decision about the percentage of sterling allowable in any LETS trade. I sold 3 Yorkys worth of apples.

When I got home, there was a phone call from Geoff, one of the attendees, who'd left his bag at the pub, and asked if I could retrieve it tomorrow.

Through facebook, I had a good conversation with the American woman who's developing the 'green funeral' concept, and we talked through what Susanne had said.  Fascinating subject area. Another good conversation.

Thursday 9th August 07

A fairly relaxing day, although did bomb into town to sort out my youngest child's present, it's his birthday tomorrow.

Several years ago we got a second hand OO guage train set on the LETSystem and we decided that he's now old enough to use it and enjoy it, so we tried it out yesterday night and found that the engine didn't work very well, so went to the Monk Bar Model Shop where they repair model engines, so left it with them and bought a small engine so he has motive power tomorrow, not just trucks and track!

So not much to report, until the evening when I researched 'ethical death' and 'green funerals' and found a reference to 'promession' in one of Justin Rowlatt's blogs so Googled it and found out lots!

Basically promession is a kind of composting of dead bodies invented by Susanne Wiigh Masak, a Swedish biologist who's into composting and recycling in a big way. The corpse is frozen with liquid nitrogen, broken up into tiny pieces by a vibrating belt or table and the water extracted in a vaccuum chamber, freeze drying. Any metals are removed (fillings, hip replacements) and the dry dust is then placed in the top layers of soil, where oxygen and soil organisms can get to it, and within a year it has gone, 'back to nature'! I like the sound of this, apart from the liquid nitrogen and freeze-drying, as this is probably quite energy intensive. I found out that Crewe and Nantwich local authority is offering the method, and there's lots of interest in the UK, and laws don't have to be changed to do this. I'm waiting for various email replies to take my interest further.

So because of this, didn't get my column written, nor my blog, but hey, it was an interesting hour or so!