If your company could cut costs and recycle in one fell swoop, it’d be silly not to take advantage of the opportunity, right?

That’s the thinking of officials in Halmstad, a small town in western Sweden. After a recent environmental review of the local crematorium, cemetery administrator Lennart Andersson was informed the facility would need new ovens to reach certain “green” benchmarks.

“After all the talk about the environment, we realized we should take advantage of the heat created during cremation,” said Andersson.

Instead of releasing the heat used during the cremation process into the atmosphere, the thermal energy will instead be directed into the heating system of the crematorium. Once the system is tested and approved, it’ll then be hooked up to the town’s entire heating network.

Andersson insists the action is being taken purely for its environmental benefits, and that “there won’t be anything different about the ashes.”

The city-wide heat system is planned to be up and running by 2010.

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Tags: Crematorium, Cut costs, Environmental benefits, Green, Recycle