New Life for Artificial Body Parts After Cremation

Funeral Industry News September 6, 2011
CDFuneralNews

We believe that every funeral director should have the tools to succeed. With the help of our field-leading partners, we publish daily funeral industry news and provide free tools to help our readers advance their careers and grow their businesses. Our editorial focus on the future, covering impact-conscious funeral care, trends, tech, marketing, and exploring how today's funeral news affects your future.


New Life for Artificial Body Parts After Cremation

It looks like an ordinary factory workshop – hundreds of containers full of metal are being processed. People are hard at work sorting out the mountains of metal. It only becomes odd when you hear what’s being said. “This is full of prosthetic human hips, and that one there has the burned remains of artificial knees.”

Welcome to OrthoMetals, a company recycling metals from crematoria. Containers from all over Europe end up in the town of Zwolle to the northeast of Amsterdam. After a process involving magnets, conveyor belts and sorting by hand, the metals are stored in various bins. They go on to be sold to companies which will melt them down and give them a new lease of life. The crematoria are paid for the metal and give the money to charity.

View the photo gallery