Deborah Richards: Christchurch Water Crematorium Director on New Zealand’s first water crematorium

A new option has opened up to Kiwi’s in their end-of-life choices.

New Zealand’s first water crematorium has opened in Christchurch and operates as a more environmentally friendly option than flame cremation.

Christchurch Water Crematorium Director Deborah Richards talks to Heather du Plessis-Allan about the business.

LISTEN ABOVE.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
New Zealand's first water crematorium though, has just opened in
christ Jurge. Apparently it's more environmentally friendly than you know
getting cremated with the fire. Deborah Richards is an operator
for the crematorium High Debbie.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Hi, Heather, how are you well?

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Thank you? So does this basically work like this that
it breaks you guys? Take the body, put some solution
in and it breaks it down. Is that essentially that
the nuts and bolts of it.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
So, yes, there's a little bit more to explain. But
we've imported a unit called a resumator from Leeds in
the UK, and it is it's essentially my background's nursing,
so it's essentially like a large sterilizer and it mimics
what happens to the body under the soil with burial.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
It breaks us.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Down to our basic building blocks amino acids, sugars, soap,
and that is the liquid that's left behind. But most importantly,
the family receives bone ash, just as they do with
flame cremation. We pull the tray out from the resumator
at the end of the process. It's four to five
hours and the body is broken down to its basic

(00:58):
building blocks as I said, which is returned to the
water cycles as process liquid that goes to the water
treatment system. Family receive the bones because we pull the
bones the tray out. The bones are left behind and
anything that is not of the body hap implants, dental implants,
knee replacements, things like that. They are clean and can

(01:18):
be recycled. And the family receives about thirty percent more
ash than they would with flame cremation, and it's pure
white because so much more of the bones are preserved.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
So you get could somebody opt to get all those
little leftover bits like the tooth caps and all that
stuff as well. Oh sure, so you can have like
a little container of ash and then a little container
of extras.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Yes, we can give them the urn with the ashes
in and whatever else they if that's what they choose
to do.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
Absolutely, do you reckon he's going to take off?

Speaker 2 (01:47):
I do. I do five people that are really wanting
to leave less of a carbon imprint or a footprint.
For those people that want to be emissing less carbon,
we amit about one hundred and eighty two more sometimes
more than two hundred forty kg of carbon with a
flame cremation, and more than seventy percent of US are
choosing flame cremation in alterio, are now so for those

(02:08):
people that want to act on climate change and are
concerned about their environmental impact? I believe so. I think
people do want to know what they can do to
address climate change, and this is now an option that
they can choose.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
Debbie, Thanks appreciate it, Debbie Richards, who is the Christierge
Water Crematorium Director. For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive,
listen live to news talks the'd be from four pm weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio