Respectful Disposal: Spatial and Material Practices of Incinerating Necro-Waste

The article inquires into the methods used for incinerating discarded human remains, referred to by waste managers as ‘respectful disposal’ practices. In order to examine how human body parts are treated as material waste, the article investigates the disposal procedures for the cadaveric parts imported to the United Kingdom for medical training and subsequently sent to waste incinerators. The article cross-relates visual, textual and technical data collected during fieldwork at high temperature and clinical waste incinerators and interviews with waste managers at four incinerators in the United Kingdom. Addressing a significant gap in the regulation of the destruction of anatomical specimens, a necro-waste category that has received little attention in the fields of both death studies and waste studies, the article inquires into the on-the-ground realities of anatomical specimen destruction at these incinerators. In revealing the situational, unsystematic and inconsistent practices of ‘respectful disposal’, the article pushes the boundaries of our understanding of the moral values around the corpse.