Dive summary:
- A new recycling market has opened up in the U.K., turning old metal hip joints, metal plates, whatever they can find from cadavers and recycling them to make road signs, lamp poles and motorway safety bridges.
- One crematorium says they collect enough prosthetic body parts every month to fill one large bin.
- In the U.S., there are EPA guidelines covering the recycling of heavy metals but no countrywide law regarding metal implantations after death; if buried, the metals can release dangerous toxins but with the rise of cremation rates, more of the metal might end up being recycled.
From the article:
"Many states don't have laws on books covering this specifically but the industry regulates itself via state boards," said Barbara Kemmis, the association's executive director.
Most of the recovered metals are recycled, refined and ultimately sold in bulk to commodities markets, Kemmis said, and often wind up in items such as cellphones. She didn't know whether the recycled metals also turn up in U.S. road signs.
The profits usually go to charities; the industry standard is that funeral homes and crematorium owners don't get to keep the cash, Kemmis told MSN News. ...
