A metal recovery scheme run by UK crematoria has raised almost £1 million for charity since it began operating in Britain in 2004.

The ‘Recycling of Metals Recovered from Cremation’ scheme is run by the Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management (ICCM) in partnership with OrthoMetals, a Dutch metal recycling company specialising in recycling medical implants, and has been in operation in Europe for 11 years.

Based on the European scheme initiated by the Royal Dutch Cremation Federation, the ICCM's recycling scheme ensures that metals used in orthopaedic surgery (such as steel pins, titanium hip replacements and cobalt-chrome knee caps) are no longer buried in crematoria (as is usual practice), but recovered and recycled to be made into products for the automotive or aeronautical industries.

Ruud Verbene, owner of OrthoMetals, elaborates: “Metals collected from crematoria are being sorted by kind in our warehouse.

“Larger quantities of each sorted material are then sold to foundries specialised in producing alloys with specific analyses. This raw material is then used in the production of high-value parts for the aircraft and automotive industry as well as the household and steel industry.”

According to the Dutch company, to date, around half of Britain's 260 crematoria have signed up to the scheme and are currently recovering around 75 tonnes of metal a year.

Any profits made from the process are then donated to death-related charities such as bereavement support groups, the Heart Foundation and Cancer Research.

Speaking to Resource, a spokesperson for ICCM said: “The success of the scheme is due mainly to the bereaved that give their consent to recycle metal remaining after cremation and the staff at crematoria who work with them. The large number of charities that have benefitted from donations of scheme surplus indicates that we are all combining to help make a difference.”

Scheme origins

Traditionally, metals retrieved following a cremation are retained in the crematorium until a sufficient quantity exists for the material to be taken into the crematorium grounds and ‘respectfully buried’.

However, the ICCM said that this practice is not sustainable as it takes up ‘more and more space in the crematorium ground’ and wastes ‘huge amounts of energy… mining new ores and producing new metals from non-renewable sources’. Further, due to changes in legislation, this practice could soon technically become illegal.

The recycling scheme came about after ICCM realised that it could not continue to bury precious resources such as metals, as it is ‘detrimental to our environment’.

The ICCM says: “At some time in our lives we may need to have an operation to replace a joint or have a metal insert to assist the repair of a bone. Often we will die with these metal implants still in our body. We may then be cremated and these metal implants remain in the ashes following the cremation… In a time when environmental issues are becoming more and more important to us all, we are realising that we cannot continue to take action that is detrimental to our environment, without accepting the consequences of our actions some time in the future.

“There is an opportunity to recycle the metals that remain after a cremation and ensure that the use of non-renewable resources is minimised, thus helping protect our long-term environment.”

Though consent from relatives to recycle the metals is not essential (as metals would be considered as abandoned, by both the relatives of the deceased and the NHS), ICCM says that currently recovered metals are only recycled with the express consent of bereaved families.

Learn more about the metal recycling process after cremation.