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Save £100 when you purchase two funeral plans together. Call us for more details.
The most popular cremation type in the UK is flame-based, that is, cremation carried out in a crematorium. Despite their widespread use across the UK, most of us might still ask ourselves “How does a crematorium work?”. In this article, we are going to discuss the cremation process, explaining how a cremator works; what happens before, during and after a cremation; as well as thinking about some of the environmental, ethical and cultural considerations.
Whether you are getting an end-of-life plan together and working out what kind of funeral you’d like, or whether you’re confronting an imminent cremation funeral for a loved one who has recently died — we are here to help. Aura is a highly rated funeral provider on Trustpilot, with a score of 4.9/5 stars. Our services are available both to those planning for the future through one of our prepaid funeral plans and those seeking a direct cremation in the here and now.
Key Takeaways
When people are trying to decide on a funeral, normally the first thing they will do is weigh up cremation vs burial. They will reach a decision on a number of factors, from local availability, to cost, as well as culture. One factor they may consider is the process used by each method, with many people choosing to avoid the idea of having their body buried beneath the earth to slowly decompose. In other words, many people prefer the cremation process to the burial process.
But what is the cremation process? In short, cremation is the process of reducing the body of someone who has died to a form of powder. There are various different kinds of cremation, with flame-based being the most popular. In this case, the body, held within its coffin, is placed inside a cremator and subjected to temperatures of 760–982ºC until it is reduced to ashes. Normally this takes 1–3 hours depending on the size of the body and the material of the coffin. Other forms of cremation include ‘promession’, where the body is frozen using liquid nitrogen and vibrated into a powder, and ‘aquamation’, where the body is dissolved in a water–alkaline solution until only the bones are left, and then ground into a powder.
On the day of someone’s cremation, with Aura, we would bring them to the crematorium in a private ambulance from the local care centre in which they have been resting. In their coffin, they will be brought into the crematorium chapel and placed upon the catafalque inside (a form of platform). Music dear to the person who has died, perhaps from among the best funeral songs, can play at this moment. A crematorium attendant will then speak a few respectful words, and the cremation will happen as soon as possible after that. If the crematorium chapel has a cremating facility on-site, then it will likely happen there, but sometimes it needs to happen elsewhere, depending on the location.
Various pieces of admin and legal matters need to be seen to before a cremation can legally proceed. The next of kin will need to register the death, and various cremation forms will need to be filled in. This not only allows the cremation to be recorded by the government, but it also makes sure that the identity of the person who has died is known at all times, and that it lines up with the information held by, e.g., the mortuary, and the crematorium staff at all times. This is also very important for the return of the ashes.
In answering how a body is prepared for cremation, there are certain matters concerning the coffin and what happens before the cremation that need to be made.
When a funeral director like Aura is appointed to manage someone’s funeral, we collect them from where they have died and bring them into our care at one of our local mortuary care facilities. It’s there the person will rest and where they will be prepared for their cremation. Before the cremation can proceed, any medical devices which they may have been fitted with will need to be removed, to remove risk of damage. Any jewellery or personal effects that the family doesn’t intend to be cremated along with the person will also be removed here.
They will also be carefully washed and dressed before being sealed within their coffin. Indeed, they burn the coffin at a cremation along with the body, and the person from the moment they are sealed inside, will remain with it until the end. With a direct cremation, a body doesn’t need to be embalmed, as the person who has died will not be placed in an open casket.
When someone dies, it generates a lot of paperwork. The first thing that needs to happen is that a Medical Examiner needs to medically certify the death. They will provide something called a ‘Medical Certificate of Cause of Death’ (MCCD) to the local registrar’s office. This allows the family to book an appointment in order to register the death. At this appointment, they will receive a ‘Death Certificate’.
Once the death has been registered, the local authority will send something called the Green Form to the funeral director (or sometimes directly to the crematorium) allowing them to see that the death has been officially registered. In conjunction with some other paperwork, it allows the crematorium to see that the cremation can legally proceed, and it can help them to keep track of the identity of the person whom they are set to cremate.
Contrary to the beliefs of some people, coffins don’t get reused between cremations: they are reduced to ash along with the body of the person who is being cremated. A coffin is needed for this process in order to preserve the dignity of the person who has died, and in order to avoid displaying an uncovered body to ordinary members of the public. Normally, coffins are made of wood, and they can be adorned with metal fixtures and fittings. With that said, other people opt instead to be covered by a shroud, or to use less expensive, less environmentally harmful materials for their coffin, such as wicker, or reinforced cardboard.
Here’s the cremation process step by step, as well as an explanation of what happens afterwards.
The nameplate on the coffin, stating the full name of the person will be compared to the cremation paperwork and medical records to ensure that the correct person is about to be cremated. The cremator is heated up to a temperature of 760–982Cº, and the body is held within the cremator until it is fully reduced to ashes. It could be the case that certain bodies will need longer, for instance if they are contained within a bariatric or oversized coffin. The coffin is consumed along with the body.
After the cremation, inside the cremator will be the ashes of the person who has died. Depending on what the coffin has been made from (and how it has been adorned), there could also be metal handles and fixtures left over too. It may also be the case that fragments of bone are left over. The ashes are gathered and placed into a scatter tube, once the cremator has cooled enough to be safe. If any handles remain, these will also be extracted, along with any metal implants that could have been left in the body of the person who died. Bone fragments can ground down into dust with something called a ‘cremulator’ and added to the ashes.
How does the cremation chamber actually work, and how many cremations occur in the UK every day?
In effect, the body of the person who has died (within their coffin or container) is hit with a column of flame, and eventually consumed. A second column of flame is normally ignited in order to burn powder and particles in the air, which reduces emissions.
According to the Cremation Society, there were 535,750 cremations in the UK in 2023, which works out to an average of 1,468 per day for the year. However, that figure would include weekends, so the daily average figure for the UK would likely be a bit higher than this. It’s a cremation myth to say that more than one person is cremated together; this would only be requested together, such as if a mother died in childbirth with her child, for instance. Otherwise, only one person is cremated at a time.
Traditional cremation (using a cremator) consumes a large amount of energy, and more people are starting to consider other forms of cremation.
Cremation uses a lot of energy. According to National Geographic, the average cremation in the US uses the same amount of energy as two full fuel tanks for the average car. Cremation providers, in order to try to minimise the environmental impact of gas-powered cremation, which is more polluting, are turning to electric cremation. This is cheaper to run and more sustainable, given the energy comes from renewable sources. They also aim to use the latest filters, both for dust and carbon, which aims to reduce the toxins discharged by the cremator into the atmosphere.
The energy consumption and carbon emissions of crematoria can generate a significant environmental impact which some people don’t want to further. As such, they are looking into greener alternative forms of cremation, such as aquamation (water cremation) and promession (freeze drying).
Aquamation sees the body placed into a steele container and submerged in a water–alkaline solution which is then heated. The body is kept there for a few hours (and occasionally rotated) until the solution has reduced it to a skeletal form. At this point, the bones are then ground down into a powder, and returned to the family in a scatter tube or urn. Promession sees the body submerged in liquid nitrogen (at temperatures of -182ºC) until it freezes and becomes brittle. At this point, it is subjected to vibrations until it shakes down into a powder. The powder is then placed in a vacuum chamber which draws out any remaining moisture, and then placed into an urn and returned to the family.
Both of these forms of cremation are legal in the UK, and some providers are now starting to offer water cremation. Promession is not very widely available, but may also see a jump in popularity from the more environmentally conscious.
Cremation is a form of funeral that is widely practiced by people from different faiths.
Cremation has been practiced for thousands of years, with the ashes urns used today looking remarkably similar to those that have been used thousands of years back in the history of cremation. There are many different beliefs on death and funerals in religion, with some religions, like Hinduism, integrating cremation fully into their funeral process (complete with the scattering of ashes into a river such as the Ganges), and others, like Islam, forbidding it.
British people, increasingly, are turning to simple cremations as a way of avoiding traditional funerals, which many feel have become too costly. Others feel that they don’t reflect their personalities as well as the more streamlined and stripped back possibility offered by direct cremation.
Although a direct cremation is normally unattended, that doesn’t mean that there can’t be some kind of memorial service or social gathering in the name of the person who has died. There is now a growing tendency to hold a celebration of life at a point in the future, once the practical matters of the funeral have been seen to. This allows the family to overcome the initial shock of their grief, and to enter a headspace which is better suited to coming together and celebrating someone’s life. Others like to have a memorial service or to hold a wake.
When receiving ashes back from cremation, you may wish to know how long it will take to get them back, and also what to do with them.
With Aura, the ashes of your loved one can be returned directly to you by hand within 21 days. If you prefer collecting the ashes of a loved one, this can be done earlier.
Once the ashes are returned to you at home, you can do as you like with them. There are a number of cremation ashes ideas that are quite commonly adopted, for instance, the interment of ashes; having an ash scattering ceremony; or holding them at home. In a situation where ashes go unclaimed, crematoria need to keep them for five years to give someone from their family the time to come forward and claim them, whilst in the meantime making an effort to trace the next of kin. If after five years, nobody has come to claim them, the crematorium may scatter them in their own Garden of Remembrance.
We hope this article about how a crematorium works has been useful for you. There are many different things to consider when getting some funeral preplanning done, and working out what kind of cremation you’d like might be one of them. For some people, understanding how a crematorium works is a part of that equation. It may also help you to know that we offer attended direct cremation plans at crematoria in certain locations around Great Britain, if you’d like for your family to be able to be there in person.
If you’d like to see how Aura could help you to plan for your future funeral, why not download our free funeral plan brochure today?
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