May 1997
The Director - Features
Don't Flush It, Box It!
Proposed legislation in New Jersey may have an everlasting effect on both funeral directors and the families they serve.
Proposed legislation in New Jersey seeks to ban discharging embalming waste into sewers, requiring that it be boxed, stored, hauled away and incinerated. By becoming law, this legislation would require funeral directors to comply with an ill-conceived procedure of pumping embalming discharge into specifically-designed boxes. These filled boxes could then be stored in funeral homes for up to 30 days before being transported to an incineration facility.
Don't Flush It, Box It!, written by Patricia Dempsey, executive assistant for the New Jersey State FDA, describes how the passing of this legislation may have a devastating economic impact on funeral service professionals and the families they serve.
Currently, the owner of an average 125-calls-per-year funeral home pays about $696 in regular medical waste generator registration, hauling and destruction fees and administrative costs. Should boxing, hauling and incinerating liquid embalming waste be required, this amount could increase to approximately $31,000 or 44 times more. The pass-along cost to consumers is estimated to be about $250 per funeral service. Be aware of how the unraveling of this bill could affect the entire funeral service industry and the way you do business.
