Can you imagine recycling Pamela Anderson's implants!

My mother died 2 years ago, and she did have a hip and a knee replaced several years before she died. I always wondered what the crematoriums did with the metal from joint replacements, pacemakers, etc. I do admit I didn't look at my mother's cremains before they were placed in the urn. I have no problems with the recycling of the metals from the joint replacements & pacemakers either.

Fortunately they weren't sent to India for recycling. What about Grandpa's parts? Also it leads one to wonder what happens to trinkets and valuables which are placed in the box with the loved one? Guess is a new angle to "send us your old gold".

Watch Soylent Green. You may have second thoughts *-*

HAH! You took the words right out of my mouth!

You guys watch too many movies... and I doubt that you are serious about recycling... :)

But it really is an important and right thing to do.

just let it go! potable2.

gary-1496054

Repuglican Troll

Brain (such as it is) is hardwired to respond to any input with tea party blather. Sad.

"When relatives are asked, virtually no one objects that the ashes are sifted for reusable metals..."

Please read and use your logic. This is necessary. It is wasteful to burn up all of those things and then toss them. Please try to understand things like metals are not renewable and someone who is alive and needs a hip replacement would benefit from the resources never running out. The ornaments are just that and are there to decorate. It is plain greed to burn up an already unnecessary piece of metal and would be collected after the cremation regardless.

"People paid for these items, and it should not be stripped from a coffin before the cremation takes place. It's one thing to report that loved ones have no problem with funeral homes sifting through the ashes for valuables. It's another to take items off a coffin and show a prestine photograph of them on a conveyor belt."

Randi is a girl? Read.

People are asked if it would be ok to recycle the metal left over from the cremation - not if it would be ok to strip off the metal decorations from the casket. I would be furious if I found out that the casket I purchased for a love one was stripped of it's valuable metal. That is stealing - there no way around that.

Agreed! Also, things like gold and precious metals should be paid for, or the estimate of the value taken from the cost of cremation. This stealing from the deceased's estate.

Well, I'm sure if anyone has any objections to the practice, they know about it now.

Personally, I find it a bit stupid and wasteful to build an ornamented casket just to throw into a fire. Obviously if someone wants to pay for something to burn, that's their business. But, I think most of us would rather see the money used for something a little more productive.

big double or triple thickness CORRUGATED PAPER BOX (cardboard box works just as well for cremation. It's not like it's going to be used again

This is why it's best to go for the plain Jane styrofoam or cardboard box. It gets burned anyway and although you might "offend" the faux caring funeral home, you would be saving lots of Grandma/Grandpa/Mom or Dad's money they are willfully passing on to you.

The other alternative is burial but then there's the doll dressing Russian who dug bodies up plus some other disreputable cemetary concerns loose.

Burning coffins is not only a total waste of resources, but and added amount of pollution. Pull the body out of the coffin after the ceremony (a cloth insert would work great) and later reuse the coffin. Save money and resources, people! Being wasteful is a real crime against Nature!

For cremation ask your funeral home about "rental casket" if you want the look of a coffin for a traditional viewing at a much reduced cost and reduced waste.

I don't recall the exact costs, but a few years ago I think this cost a total of under $200 for a relative. You buy an inner "cardboard" casket (lined with cloth so it looks like a "real casket") that is cremated with the body and then is placed for ceremonial purposes into the rental casket that is reused many times.

In our case, the rental casket was in good shape. If it's used just for viewing vs. having pallbearers carry it around, I imagine they last a long time - the funeral home has a vested interest in treating it well. However, you may ask to see the actual rental casket that will be used to make sure it doesn't look worn (we didn't and I don't know if the funeral home would have allowed us to).

You probably won't have much selection of caskets this way so if you absolutely must be viewed in a Flintstones themed casket this may not be a good option.

PDX Girl:

I did. Hense my comment.

Randi is a girl:

Then it's obvious you need a reading comprehension class, or to go back to elementary school again.

Anyone who pays for a real wooden casket with all the trimmings just to cremate someone is either rich or a clueless fool. But if they pay for the casket, the entire casket should be cremated with them, not stripped off before hand without reimbursement to the family. Everyone knows the family paid for that gold cross and trimmings, if it isn't going to be burned give it to the family, don't charge them for it, or buy it from them, one of the three otherwise it is theft.

Jamis was a friend of mine.

Jamis was certainly not a friend of Chani's.... Or Stilgars....

I kind of respect the Fremen's attitude about water, though.

I found it hard to believe they'd amassed enough water to completely change the climate of Arakkis. That's like, oceans. Where were they hiding it?

Soylent

Great Movie

"GET YOUR SOYLENT YELLOW"...there were various colors available. This movie was a classic. Think it was Edward G Robinson's last movie. The scene of him admiring scenes of a long past beautiful earth rings an eerie bell these days with a bleak and dismal future in store for humanity at the rate they are going. My plans are to eventually be euthanized in Switzerland once the time comes and have my ashes sprinkled over a nearby mountain.

Joe, I completely agree but its their right. its their right to drive in the left lane which is the passing lane, cuz they pay taxes. its their right to stay on unemployment for 99 weeks, then find a job (not saying all do this but many do). its their right to boycott black friday even though hurting any type of stimulation in the economy will put more in their shoes. its their right to vote... unfortunately

$100 for a cardboard box? I'm pretty sure my son could find a refrigerator or water heater box that I'd fit in for FREE!

LOL..Miker. Thanks for the chuckle. Desperately needed it wading through these very grim photos.

Love the cardboard box idea, though. Otherwise, just pitch my a$$ into a hole. Once I'm dead, WTF do I care...just please family (!) Don't go into hock for a bunch of crap I won't see to appreciate!

I've swallowed pennies when I was a kid maybe they can still find some change, and what about gold teeth, I read that there is a place in Japan that recycles human crap by burning and they get on average 187K in gold

nah - all of that small change was just passing thru...

BINGO MOSES!Couldn't of said it better myself.It not sends shivers up and down your spine it's enough to make your hair curl.

Imagine having a haunted hip replacement?

Good idea! Buy your hip on e-bay. Slightly used...previous owner had a heart attack just after surgery...like new $300.00 OBO. Time remaining 00:00.

sure - when we have a car fixed, we are entitled to the old parts so that we have PROOF that the parts were replaced...

Pop had a metal hip - nobody in the family CARED that it didn't get buried with him as "grave goods". Now if it had been GOLD...

most of the implants are titanium - actually very low value as recycled metal unless the alloy is known and segregated

Sounds good but let me see the Hip-Fax.

Sounds very considerate of your Carolyn but I wouldn't trust the funeral home with this nor would I expect they would do such a thing. Instead check around the internet and see if there are locations where this sort of thing might be done. If it's a bridge perhaps it would be easy to remove but the other components...no. But you bring up an interesting point, that is could/should funeral homes re-imburse families for the valuables extracted from the deceased? (providing of course an "inventory" can be determined beforehand.)

Oh yeah and I forgot the titanium in my cervical spine......I don't know if it is worth much....but I have a bit of titanium there too. I might also add the TSA people love me......hahaha...but are always very nice to me when I go thru security. I have never once had a problem with TSA and going thru security. NEVER ONCE!!