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A cash-strapped council in the United Kingdom has come under fire for its plan to use the heat from a nearby crematorium to heat a public swimming pool, according to a report in the U.K.’s Daily Mail.
The excess heat generated by the incinerator at the Borough Of Redditch Cemeteries & Crematorium in Worcestershire would be used to warm the water for swimmers at the nearby Abbey Stadium Sports Centre -- the plan will reportedly cut £14,500 each year (slightly more than $23,000) off the council’s heating bills.
Aside from saving cash, council leaders argue that the plan is a greener way of powering the sports center. Currently, heat from the incinerators (which reaches 800 degrees centigrade) is lost into the atmosphere, the article says.
“I’d much rather use the energy rather than just see it going out of the chimney and heating the sky,” Council leader Carole Gandy told the newspaper.
In an effort to scale back its national debt, late last year the United Kingdom announced the most drastic budget cuts in living memory -- including sharp cuts in public sector funding -- that surpass measures taken by other advanced economies. Prime Minister David Cameron has said the nation is facing an “age of austerity” that will mean tough economic choices for most Britons, but some local residents in the Borough Of Redditch seem uncertain those choices extend to heating their local pool by burning cadavers.
Simon Thomas, of Thomas Brothers Funeral Directors, told the paper: ”I don’t know how comfortable people would feel about the swimming pool being heated due to the death of a loved one, I think it’s a bit strange and eerie.”
“I’m not comfortable with it at all and I think trying to save money due to the death of someone's family member or friend is a bit sick,” he added. “I think it will cause uproar and may even put people off using the facilities which would lose the council money.”
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No this is an excellent use of waste heat, it is not the ashes going up the chimney it's exhaust gasses from the burners.
Having said that, to keep a constant heat supply they must be cremating a steady stream of people!
haaaa, wowwwwwwww, this is green, the true nature of the green movement.
I think it's a great plan. I am a registered organ donor. When I die, my organs might help save lives. Why not let the rest of me provide some benefit as well? This idea that we should be stuck in a box in the ground is silly. Burn me, and let the heat serve a purpose.
you know in china, when they put you in prison for speech laws and take your blood type, they also make you a registered organ donor. only they have down, when someone needs an organ, they blow your head off and harvest what they need. chinas so green.
I think it's an excellent idea. It's only the excess heat from the "ovens" persay, that would be heating the pool, not the persons being cremated. Same could be said if it was a bakery or a nuclear plant instead of a crematorium.
I have just been on the Daily Mail's & from what I can see its the press that is so aggrieved about this most "real" people think its a great idea.
Why the heck not use the heat instead of waste it. All humans do is use resources now you are taking the only chance humans have to give back.
Pretty ingenious actually, but I could have told them this wouldn't go over well.
I agree with the comments above. Good idea only being aggrevated by the press. Not the Soylent Green they are making it out to be.
Soylent swims is people!
Excellent idea, I would love to heat a pool when I get cremated (Seriously). Why not, it's a waste not to. It's just heat, energy, and the energy comes from the gas that burns, not from the dead. Makes total sense.
I agree with everyone else, it is an excellent way to save energy and money at the same time, We all need to think of more ways to go greener, and save our resources.
it makes perfect sense! We're going to heat our next house with the water from our pool.
I do that already. Heating the pool is even better. Way more efficient than a good sized geothermal field. Kinda surprising.
There is also the waste heat from power station cooling towers that could be tapped. Commercial green houses right by a power station make sense to me. I am sure other commercial activities could benefit from waste heat. Hot water could be piped for residential heating.
Thats where NYC gets all that steam that keeps blowing up.
The writer of Soylent Green knew so long ago that heinous things were afoot in the name of all things GREEN. As another poster here said, they'll need a constant supply of bodies to keep a power station going. Genocide anyone?