Bill lets unclaimed ashes be buried at sea BOSTON, Feb. 27 (UPI) -- Massachusetts lawmakers have proposed legislation that would make it more affordable for funeral homes to dispose of abandoned cremated remains. The bill, discussed Monday by the Massachusetts Committee on Public Health, adds an "at sea" disposal option for for funeral directors to dispose of cremated remains -- or "cremains" -- that are unclaimed more than a year, the Boston Herald reported. Democratic Rep. James M. Cantwell of Marshfield, who sponsored the bill, said funeral homes currently have to keep the remains or pay the cost themselves of interring them in a vault or a common "pit grave." "There is some romance to the idea of having your ashes spread out at sea," said Cantwell. Worcester undertaker Peter Stefan, a member of the state Board of Funeral Services and Embalming, estimates he has "a few hundred" urns and ash boxes piled up at his establishment. "I did about 37 in January, and only seven have been picked up," Stefan said about recent cremations. I can't keep haunting these people. They don't know what to do with them. If they go to a cemetery, it will cost them $900 for a plot. People don't have money to put gas in their cars. Brad White of Marshfield, a licensed captain and skipper who founded New England Burials at Sea three years ago, said he would be happy to help funeral homes dispose of remains at a reduced rate. "It happens that many fences get mended at sea," White said. We conduct a private ash service with music, flowers. We read a beautiful prayer. We then gently scatter the cremated remains. ... You see a beautiful plume of cremated remains on the outgoing tide.