FAMILIES should consider alternatives to burial such as freeze-drying to combat a looming crisis in cemetery space, undertakers’ union GMB said yesterday.

The union’s congress heard that radical changes would be needed for body disposal following recent warnings from the Ministry of Justice that Britain’s graveyards will be full within 20 years.

A motion unanimously endorsed at the conference resolved to consider the ecolation and promession processes — where bodies are frozen and then either dried or vibrated to separate solid components from liquids, which are then disposed of.

The process is still in the early stages of development but it is rated at zero emission and produces remains which resemble cremated ashes.

Birmingham and west Midlands delegate Angela Gilraine said: “We need new ways to look at how to dispose of remains.”

The motion said it would be a “good thing” if everyone took part of a day in the next year to think about the disposal of their mortal remains.

“The public may not be aware there’s a looming crisis,” Birmingham education branch delegate Elliott Downing said.

“Nobody likes their own mortality but there needs to be more environmentally aware ways of disposing of bodies.”

The motion also noted the environmental benefits of woodland and sea burials but said such processes do not “represent a significant change in body disposal.”

GMB, whose members include undertakers and cemetery workers, has previously spoken out against the increasing costs of funerals and burials.