While parliament wonders about the right to die or rather helps to die, the funeral sector is thinking about the after. In recent years, new practices have already appeared. Increasingly, the funeral rituals well anchored in religious traditions are competed by secularized ceremonies, sometimes designed and carried by the families of the deceased. The organ and prayers replace personalized speeches and sometimes a tube of Johnny Hallyday – not the petty surveillance of the SACEM.
On the accessories side, the coffin remains compulsory in France, but nothing prohibits customizing it. We can thus opt for luxury coffins as for a cardboard model, on which we will draw from the inspiration of the moment to write some thoughts or decorate it by moving with a brush.
“À la carte” cooperatives and rituals
Sometimes, we call on funeral cooperatives to better appropriate the ceremony, the duration of which is not necessarily defined in advance: it is up to the family to decide. These cooperatives carry other approaches (opening of municipal halls to the funeral, organization of festivals, etc.) which promote rituals “à la carte”, for generations which lived from the 1960s to the 1980s a period of questioning of social standards and demands of greater freedoms. “Faced with the commodification of death (coffins and derivative products), these cooperatives intend to enhance services, as close as possible to the expectations of families”estimates Martin Julier-Costes, associate researcher at Grenoble Alpes University.
If these burial methods are still marginal, they testify to deep societal changes. “The current funeral clientele is still representative of a generation always very anchored in traditionexplains Manon Moncoq, anthropologist of the funerary and the environment. She wants a large coffin, Capitons, an imposing cellar … The next generation grew up in a world where ecological questions were more present. ”
No more green, it’s always more verses
Environmental soul obliges, inside, make way for cotton, hemp or linen capitons, instead of the classic synthetic fabrics. The ballot boxes? In salt, sand or wood, they are now biodegradable. In the Netherlands, the LOOP start-up now markets mycelium coffins. Difficult to make more natural … here or there, marble gives way to the plant.
Already competed by cremation, the traditional burial sees two new methods looming.
The demand for “green” funeral is under construction, as is the supply. “But we sometimes give up at the last moment: not easy to put mom in a box!”Exclaims Manon Moncoq. Likewise, because communities are now prohibited from using pesticides in cemeteries, it must be explained that crazy herbs are not disrespectful. Or innovate: in Saint-Joachim (Loire-Atlantique), the cemetery is adorned with solar panels, thus reducing the growth of the grass.
Finally, already competed by cremation, the traditional burial sees two new methods looming.
Return to earth
The first, the terrament, remains largely prohibited in Europe, to the chagrin of its promoters – as this association in France or this cooperative in Belgium. There are several forms, above ground, on the ground (prohibited everywhere) or in the basement. We are talking about natural organic reduction (Nor Process) or human composting.
Despite the symbolism of regeneration, giving birth to a tree remains of the order of the dream, except in six North American states where this practice is legalized.
The body is in controlled medium: an airtight cellar whose temperature, humidity, pressure is managed. After about two months, the compost (which has the same status as the ashes) can be recovered by the family or sanctuarized in a forest managed by a foundation. In case of procrastination, a 50-50 is possible. In Germany, more precisely in the Land of the Schleswig-Holstein, an experiment with human bodies has been underway since 2024. The transformation into soil takes about three months and the compost must be buried in a cemetery.
In France, the deputy Élodie Jacquier-Laforge tabled an experimental bill aimed at developing humusation (one of the processes of terramentation) in January 2023. In the presentation of reasons, she underlines the drawbacks of burial and cremation, old processes and “Extremely polluting. Indeed, the cremation gives off almost 3% of the annual CO emissions2 From a citizen, burial four times more. They require a coffin, its maintenance, as well as the preservation of the body with polluting products, such as formalum. ” For the moment, this text is not registered on the agenda. Carried by the universities of Bordeaux and Lille, the CNRS and the Humo Sapiens association, an experiment (F-Compost project) is planned in 2026 with animal bodies.
Like a deceased in water
Finally, here comes the aquamation. The process is not new: from 1888, Amos Herbert Hobson reduced animal bodies by alkaline hydrolysis – we will remember it during the crazy cow crisis. The chemical process is close to natural hydrolysis with aerobic bacteria, but using an alkaline solution, 5% Alkali (potassium hydroxide) and 95% water, as detailed by Pierre Vidallet, specialist in cremation and now a fervent defender of the aquamation.
There follows a rise in temperature to reduce the body in calcius (which we know under the name of “ashes”). The operation takes approximately three hours: the leftovers are then crushed and arranged in an urn, exactly as after a cremation. As for any prostheses, they leave the process in perfect condition.
If in France the aquamation remains prohibited, it is because of the compulsory nature of the coffin.
In the United States, the practice was simply legalized, thanks to the choice of an appropriate vocabulary, laughs Pierre Vidallet: “They talked about” water cremation “to register in existing legislation!”
In addition to the fact that water can then be sent to sanitation networks, energy consumption is approximately seven times less compared to that required by cremation. Several countries in Europe have adopted or are about to adopt aquamation: Ireland since 2023, Belgium, Scotland, the Netherlands … It is also legal in South Africa: in the Saint-Georges du Cap cathedral, the “ashes” of the Archbishop Desmond Tutu are the result.
And in France?
If in France the aquamation remains prohibited, it is because of the compulsory nature of the coffin, article R2213-15 of the general code of local authorities imposing a beer of the body of a deceased person
“Before its burial or cremation”. But the method is proven and the devices exist, recalls Pierre Vidallet. He observes that in the United States, “In twelve years, 80% of families to whom we have made the choice of” classic “cremation or” water cremation “have chosen water”. In fact, in Île-de-France, a sYndicat intercommunal funeral, Sifurep, decided to think about the question.
But recent parliamentary debates on helping help have shown how France was struggling to have an informed and permissive approach on such questions. If hexagon remains lagging behind, one can imagine new funeral processions around helping to die in Switzerland or Belgium, followed by a transfer to Germany. For the terrament, dependent for the family to bring back the soil to use it in France and grow a tree!
