Mangonia Park funeral business hopes ‘water cremation’ will catch on

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) — More and more people are exploring options for end-of-life arrangements and eco-friendly choices are becoming popular.

Thomas Trowbridge wanted a gentler alternative to a traditional flame cremation.

“He mentioned to me that he wanted to be cremated when the time came, but not by fire. I thought that was the only cremation there was,” Trowbridge’s friend, Katherine Coe, recalled.

Trowbridge passed away six months ago. That’s when Coe discovered Gentle Water Cremation, a funeral business tucked away in Mangonia Park, a town in Palm Beach County.

“Tom’s wishes were granted in exactly what he wanted,” Coe said.

How It Works

The business offers a process known as Alkaline Hydrolysis to break down human remains using warm water. The result is a fine powder that can be returned to loved ones in an urn.

Trowbridge was one of the first people to be placed inside Gentle Water Cremation’s pressurized steel chamber.

Co-Founder & Managing Funeral Director, Holly Sutton, explained how water creation works. The deceased is covered in an organic blanket before being carefully placed on a tray that extends from the water cremation machine. Once the machine’s door is closed, a technician initiates the process. The chamber fills with 95% water and 5% alkali.

“We capture a natural element that occurs in the soil, potassium. We concentrate with heat and pressure and over the course of several hours. It breaks down the organic materials that make up the human body,” Sutton said.

The skeletal remains are then removed from the vessel before they’re dried in another specialized machine. Things like metal implants, pacemakers or devices come out intact and are recycled.

“Once they’re dried, they go into a cremulator, a standard cremulator, that is used any crematory operation,” Sutton said.

According to the company, it uses 90% less energy than flame cremation and eliminates harmful emissions. The process doesn’t use any fossil fuels.

“During flame cremation, everything is being incinerated including clothing, or mercury filling in the mouth, or a casket, or other items that may be with them,” Sutton said.

Water Cremation, what others behind the movement call Aquamation, has been around for years.

Legal in Florida since 2010, but Gentle Water Cremation is unique.

“We’re the only ones doing water cremation in the state of Florida,” Co-Founder Steve Pomerantz said. “Other states have caught up to it. Now it’s available in about 15 other states.”

Pomerantz knows this option isn’t for everyone but believes it’s going to appeal to a lot of people in a few years.

“We don’t want to push people into doing this,” he said. “If you want a traditional service, in a chapel, but you also want water cremation, we’re going to, very selectively, start working with some funeral homes across the state.”

As for Coe, she felt very comfortable through the whole process and encourages people to think about it.

“I got to choose the urn for Tom. I chose the sprinkle tube. One day, his group of friends and I will sprinkle him out there in the water,” Coe shared.