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Most Advanced Cremation Equipment in North America

  • Mount Pleasant Group of Cemeteries announces building of new cremators and emission abatement systems for Mount Pleasant and Elgin Mills Cemeteries;

  • New equipment exceeds the world’s most stringent emission standards.


TORONTO, December 1, 2011 – Mount Pleasant Group of Cemeteries (MPGC) will begin building new cremator and emission abatement systems at two of its four cremation facilities – Mount Pleasant Cemetery in mid-town Toronto and Elgin Mills Cemetery in Richmond Hill.

In the past few years, cremation has grown significantly in popularity compared to traditional burial and now accounts for over 50% of funeral choices in the Greater Toronto Area.

Said Glenn McClary, President and CEO of MPGC: “We have a 185-year tradition of technical and service innovations, including our new solar-powered geothermal York Cemetery Columbarium and Canada’s only LEED-designated Visitation Centre in the Mount Pleasant Cemetery. So we’re especially proud to lead the industry in adopting higher environmental standards while offering meaningful choices for consumers.” 

The new equipment is the most advanced cremator and emission abatement system available, and exceeds all known emissions standards in the world.  The $3 million project will eliminate more than 99% of crematorium emissions and detectable airborne particulates, and greatly reduce the use of fossil fuels, creating lower carbon discharge from these two facilities.

The equipment will be installed by Facultatieve Technologies of Great Britain, following an 18-month research, assessment and bidding process. It replaces systems now in use at Mount Pleasant Cemetery and at Elgin Mills Cemetery, and we are anticipating installation by the end of 2012. It’s expected that the Mount Pleasant Group’s existing cremation systems at Meadowvale Cemetery, Brampton, and Thornton Cemetery, Oshawa, will also be upgraded and modernised in the next few years.

In the cremation process, hot air is retained in a secondary chamber for 2 seconds, to reduce particulates and dramatically improve combustion performance.  This air is then directed through a cooling process, and a carbon filtration unit that captures any remaining small airborne particulates, which are deposited in a 45-gallon drum. Only after these steps are taken, is the cleaned air released to the environment. This material is expected to amount to 3 to 5 containers annually, and will be disposed safely by a licensed waste management company.

Technical Fact Sheet - Cremation Retorts