It’s always lovely to help local charities so Austin’s was thrilled to hand over a cheque for £5,000 to Crossroads Care Hertfordshire North this month. It’s a fantastic charity that supports unpaid carers and their families through a range of services, including help at home, community cafes and respite care.
The donation was made possible by our membership of the Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management (ICCM), which runs an innovate Metals Recycling Scheme. As part of the scheme, crematoriums can have metals collected from their premises, with profits from the recycling scheme fed back so that they can donate to their nominated charity.
The ICCM started its recycling scheme in 2006, following on from other European countries like Holland, Germany and Switzerland. The idea behind it was first and foremost to help the environment – which is why our Harwood Park Crematorium was so keen to sign up.
The main metal that’s collected is from orthopaedic implants, which people may have had for a joint replacement or bone repair operation. These implants are made from medical-grade metal that comes from non-renewable sources – so a huge amount of energy is wasted in mining new ores to produce more metal. With the metal recycling scheme, the implants are smelted down ready to make new orthopaedic implants.
Since we joined the ICCM’s metal recycling scheme 11 years ago we’ve not only been helping to protect the planet in this way we’ve also raised around £30k for local charities, including Road Victims Trust, Keech Hospice Care and the MS Centre in Letchworth.
Of course we understand that not everyone will want to have their loved one’s implants recycled. Some people may prefer to either have an implant returned to them or for it to be buried. Unfortunately, however, we can’t scatter cremated remains that contain metal.
We’re always sensitive to a family’s needs and when you come to us to arrange a funeral we’ll do whatever feels right for you and your loved one. If you do decide to opt for recycling we’ll ask you to sign a consent form so that everyone is clear about your wishes.
* If you’d like to arrange a cremation at Harwood Park Crematorium, please contact us on 01438 815555.
