Following a cremation of a deceased person the ashes are likely to contain metals, such as items used in the construction of the coffin and, frequently, orthopaedic implants, such as hip and knee replacement joints. In the past these metals were removed from the ashes and buried within the grounds of the crematorium, as the bereaved had very rarely expressed any desire for them to be returned to them.
Mortlake Crematorium are members of a national recycling scheme initiated by the Institute of Cemeteries and Crematorium Management (ICCM). The ICCM work in partnership with Orthometals a Dutch recycling company that provide this service all over Europe. The metals are collected from each crematorium in the scheme, and any monies collected are donated to national or local bereavement Charities, such as CRUSE, Macmillan, SANDS and Cancer Research.
The Institute of Cemeteries and Crematorium Management (ICCM) announced, in December 2023, that the Recycling of Metals scheme in partnership with Orthometals, has donated in excess of £19,112,000.00 to bereavement charities in the United Kingdom.
Mortlake Crematorium Nominated Charities have been:
2023 £7,000 Teddy’s Wish
2023 £7,000 Papyrus
2022 £6,000 Child Bereavement UK
2022 £6,000 British Heart Foundation
2021 £15,000 The London Air Ambulance
2021 £10,000 The Princess Alice Hospice
2020 £10,000 Remember My Baby
2020 £10,000 The Good Grief Trust
2019 £8,000 Widowed and Young (WAY)
2019 £8,000 Winston’s Wish
2019 £7,000 The Princess Alice Hospice
2018 £5,000 Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Charity (SANDs)
2018 £5,000 Age UK (Richmond)
2017 £5,000 The Good Grief Trust
2017 £5,000 The Royal Marsden, Cancer Charity
2016 £4,337 Prevent Dementia (West London)
2016 £4,444 Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Charity (SANDs)
2015 £4,321 Sudden Adult Death Trust (SADS)
2015 £4,487 Cardiac Risk in the Young
2014 £3,334 Chelsea & Westminster Hospital Child Bereavement Suite
2014 £4,411 Survivors of Bereavement by Suicide (SOBS)
2013 £8,666 Meadow House Hospice, Ealing
2012 £8,485 MacMillan Nurses
2011 £8,333 Shooting Star Children’s Hospice
“ICCM would like to thank each scheme member, but most of all the bereaved themselves, whose consent has enabled waste metal to be recycled and financial help to be provided to UK bereavement charities. Waste that would have been illegally buried, has instead helped the lives of countless people all over the United Kingdom.”
If you do not wish the metals to be recycled then we are happy to return them to you. Please request this, before the cremation takes place.
Mortlake Crematorium also is a Pacemaker recycling collection point. Pacemakers cannot be cremated as they can cause an explosion. They are removed from the person who has died before the body is brought to the crematorium, by hospital staff, coroner’s staff, an embalmer or Funeral Director’s staff. The pacemakers are collected as part of the metals recycling scheme.