A town in Britain is proposing to take the heat generated from a local crematorium and use it to heat the local arena. The town council argues that it's a good way to reduce the carbon footprint created by cremation. But critics say we shouldn't be cremating bodies at all because the process generates an enormous amount of carbon emissions which can't be offset simply by using the energy created by the process. We'll look at the environmental politics of cremation.

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PART THREE

Cremation Nation - Councillor

Off the top of this hour we heard from Simon Thomas. He's a funeral director in Redditch, England. And he was talking about an innovative - yet some say goulish proposal - to use the energy generated from the local crematorium to heat a soon-to-be-built sports arena and swimming pool. The idea comes from Redditch's town council. And from the council's perspective, there's a pretty compelling reason to do it.

Simon Thomas say that he was a little uncomfortable with the idea at first. And there are mixed views in the town too. Carol Gandy is a town councilor in Redditch. And she likes the idea of using the heat from the local crematorium to heat the town's arena.

As Redditch ponders how it use the energy from the crematorium to heat their pool rather than the sky. Consider this: By some estimates, it takes 92 cubic metres of natural gas and anywhere from 15 to 29 kilowatt-hours of electricity to cremate the average person. That's enough to meet the energy demands of an average Canadian home for nearly two weeks.

That's why Allen Bessel is dying to get people thinking about - what he believes - is an environmentally friendly alternative to cremation. He's the President of Transition Science Incorporated. His company is introducing a new funeral process called resomation. And he was in Toronto.

Cremation Nation - Eric Vandermeersch

We wanted to see the cremation process up close. So The Current's Amanda Grant met up with Eric Vandermeersch. He's the CEO of Basic Funeral and Cremation Choices. And he showed Amanda around the St. John's Dixie Cemetery and Crematorium in Mississauga, Ontario.

Eric Vandermeersch is the CEO of Basic Funeral and Cremation Choices. And he joined Anna Maria in Toronto.

LAST WORD

We left you with some thoughts about cremation - something we touched on earlier in the program in the wake of the news that a town in England is thinking of taking the heat generated by the local crematorium and using it to heat a sports arena and swimming pool. That got our friends at The CBC's Content Factory wondering if there might be other ways to use the heat coming from crematoriums. Listen to what they came up with.

Related Links:

• Council considers re-using energy from crematorium to heat adjacent leisure centre
• Council leader reacts to controversial crematorium plans

Other segments from today's show:

• Egypt Politics
• Political Vetting