After you die, have you pondered a green way to be returned to the earth?

[RiverStone]

Not the most happy of topics, but I'm assuming many DUers have pondered the most environmentally friendly to dispose of...you! I'd be really interested to hear what you've come up with! I hope to live to be 100, but having crossed the big 50, I at least am now forcing myself to have some plan in place so my kiddos don't have to guess which environmentally friendly way to dispose of their ol man. I know, planning this stuff is actually the most caring thing to do for the ones that love us.

Ummmmm, but what to do????

I'm still debating whether I prefer being buried in a totally bio friendly container (with no yukky chemical preservatives) and being planted in the earth to nourish to plants vs cremation. I've heard if you get burned in a modern facility (that burns hot and efficiently) and have your mercury fillings pulled ahead of time --- there is minimal pollution and of course, more earth not being taken up by a burial.

more here: http://www.grist.org/advice/how/2008/07/22/

I've always thought the Sky Burial was a cool idea and it has been practiced in Tibet (and other cultures) for a long time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_burial
-I love the mountains and this has to be the most environmentally friendly method of all, but obviously not practical in the burbs USA.

Or do what Edward Abby did - find a beautiful wilderness spot away from it all and just have friends do the deed, fuck the legalities. I believe he was buried in an ol sleeping bag somewhere in the Cabeza Prieta desert in southern Arizona (but the spot will forever remain secret.) Of course, not all of us have a good lead on a hidden spot in the woods or out in the desert. I do actually, but would I want to ask anybody I love to haul me there --- thinking...

Abbey did say this regarding his death:

"If my decomposing carcass helps nourish the roots of a juniper tree or the wings of a vulture - that is immortality enough for me. And as much as anyone deserves."

I could live (or die) with that. What about you? :think:

[wtmusic]

1. Cremation probably uses a lot of energy

Being buried in the desert suits me.

[jedr]

19. I have enough fat on me that it won't take much energy! n/t

[havocmom]

80. making soup doesn't take much energy, does it?

Feed me to the dogs.

[Blue_In_AK]

2. I plan to be cremated

and scattered around somewhere here in Alaska.

[livetohike]

3. I definitely want a green burial

I agree with Edward Abbey (see my sig line) :-). I'd like to be buried on my property - I haven't looked into whether that is legal or not, but it's my plan.

[RiverStone]

7. Actually, I've though of that as well

But unless we give our property to an organization like the Nature Conservancy (to forever remain in it's natural state), someday our kids/friends/heirs or their kids will leave it and eventually there would be this piece of property with a body buried in it.

Not sure on the legalities there?

Tho I like the idea too :)

[KansDem]

4. Cremation and scattered at sea...

I don't want to be hanging around here any longer than I have to...

[Buck Laser]

22. That's the way we plan to go as well.

I hope ashes don't contaminate the sea.

[nichomachus]

33. Cremated and Angel Flight for me

First, you're cremated.

Then, they send your cremains to Angel Flight who turns them into fireworks.

Finally, your friends and family go out on a lovely cruise at dusk. Music. Nice food. And then, they shoot off the fireworks with your cremains in them over the ocean. And, you are scattered at sea.

[A-Long-Little-Doggie]

50. That's exactly what I want!

Already told the kids. I also want to be late to my own funeral/service. Many have prophesied this, and I want them to have a good laugh!

[WillieW]

67. cremation and scattered in the river of the town where I was born.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

78. Cremated, then entombed in a "reef ball"...

to help restore dying reefs and provide new habitats for marine life.

[damntexdem]

5. No, very few have pondered anything after they've died.

So far as we know.

[RiverStone]

12. Great, now the language police are hounding me in death!

OK, I got it :hi:

Maybe there will be a DU in afterlife and we can talk about it!

In reality, I think we will be worm food.

[hlthe2b]

6. There was an episode of Six Feet Under where ....

the girlfriend (wife?) of the lead character died and he did the illegal "natural" burial in California... I don't remember the details, but it did leave me wondering if you could get by with it.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

77. That's what I was going to reference...

that ending was beautiful. Just wrap me in a shroud and stick me in the ground next to a big, beautiful tree.

[tangent90]

8. Being dumped out in the boondocks would suit me fine. Buzzards gotta eat too.

:D

But that isn't very practical (meaning convenient) so I've arranged for cremation. It doesn't use much more energy than grilling hamburgers for a small tailgate event :D

[kimmerspixelated]

9. what happens with the spare junk parts if you

donate your body to science?

[mykpart]

47. When you donate your body to science,

they cremate it when they are through with it, and send the ashes to your family. This is what I plan to do.

[blogslut]

10. If I had a choice

I would like to be planted in the ground, sans embalming fluid or coffin. Since that probably not going to happen, I would like to be made into a diamond:

http://www.lifegem.com/

[XemaSab]

44. Tell your descendants that you don't want to be embalmed

Make a stink about it. Tell them you're Muslim. :D

[OhioChick]

11. My wishes are to be cremated and my ashes scattered. n/t

[Ezlivin]

31. How do you cremate your wishes?

'Cause there's a few I'd like to put on the fire.

[oldtime dfl_er]

13. Is it okay if I don't think about it?

I know it's wrong and I should. And I'm trying to leave a light footprint during my lifetime (don't own a car, etc). But damn now you've got me thinking about it. Is being tosssed into the sea okay?

[leftofthedial]

14. I figure I'll probably just rot in my basement

long before anyone thinks to look for a body

[TahitiNut]

43. Ditto. Dessication and rot.

Worm food.

[BuyingThyme]

15. I don't ponder that.

[anonymous171]

16. It'll be a pyre for me.

None of this cremation baloney.

[Sylvarose]

17. Green Burial if Possible

..not many places in the US do it yet..but there is some talk in my community about trying to get a place started. Just bury me deep and let me feed some trees, bushes and be part of green space people can visit.

You can find more info about greenburials here: http://www.greenburials.org/

If not that..then cremation..but want all my teeth removed first. If you have the old mercury kind like I do..you don't want those incincerated. Google cremation and mercury to read the about the debate.

sr

[PassingFair]

18. Nuh-uh....

I'm UPPING my footprint when I croak.

[Siwsan]

20. Buried, au natural, deep in the earth, next to an Oak tree

Over time, I would become the tree. A good next life, for a Celt.

[demwing]

21. Actually, I just had to go through this

My 9 year old son died from cancer in January of this year. We had his body cremated, and are scattering his ashes in various places that were significant to his life. A portion were scattered into the Pacific Ocean near the beaches on which he played as a baby, some in the Redwood Forests of Del Norte County, just south of Oregon, where he grew up, and some into the Great Salt Lake, near where we live currently.

My son Ian, before he became ill, as I will always remember him -

[Sylvarose]

23. *HUG*

I'm so sorry. He was a beautiful boy. I don't have any children but I have a 9 year old nephew. I can't imagine the pain.

*HUG*

sr

[OhioChick]

24. I'm so sorry for your loss...

He was a very handsome young boy. What you are doing with his ashes is a beautiful thing.

:hug:

[Reeta77]

25. Beautiful child...thank you for sharing your story.

n/t

[Siwsan]

27. My heart goes out to you

Beyond that, I can not find the words......

[RiverStone]

34. The places you mentioned are all beautiful...

Seen them in person.

Ian looked to be a real cool kid, much loved.

demwing, so sorry for your loss and grateful for your sharing. :grouphug:

[uppityperson]

51. I am so sorry, what a cutie. Hugs to you and yours.

[demwing]

66. Thank you everyone

I miss my boy, everyday is a struggle to stay sane.

[AlCzervik]

76. there really are no words here that are adequate enough so i'm just going to say i am so very sorry.

he was beautiful boy and i weep for your loss, again i'm so very sorry.


:cry: :hug:

[humblebum]

26. I had planned on being freeze dried and being used as a hatrack.

But then that would probably use too much energy. Then again , energy would not need to be expended to dig a hole for burial or for cremation.

[ldf]

74. freeze dried, powdered and used as fertilizer

http://www.stunning-stuff.com/read-weird-news-stories/26.html?ci=7

that seems like the least offensive.

if the costs are reasonable, it could take off.

probably a good business investment, too. 'cause we all gotta die and return to nature.

i don't want to burn, float down to be eaten by whatever in the ocean, or rot and be eaten by worms. CERTAINLY not embalmed and put into a casket to stretch the quick process out for decades....

but that is just me...

:shrug:

[Ezlivin]

28. My wife will use the Ronco Home Cremation Kit along with our barbeque grill

The plan is to have friends over to grill steaks and other tasty items, then use the Ronco® Home Cremation Kit to take care of me.

I've already chosen "Mesquite, Light Hickory Flavoring" as my option.

[DemoTex]

29. Ramsey Creek Preserve, Westminster, SC

Want to give back to Mother Earth when you are gone? Perhaps you are worried about how your burial practices may harm the environment. Ramsey Creek Preserve is leading a new movement in eco-friendly burial. This beautiful, 32- acre wildlife preserve, nestled in the forests of Westminster, South Carolina is alive with the bubbling of woodland streams and the twitter of birdsong. Ramsey Creek is a beautiful, quiet, natural alternative to modern cemeteries. No embalming fluids are used or allowed to seep into groundwater. Even grave markers and caskets are eco-friendly at Ramsey Creek Preserve.

Ramsey Creek Preserve offers healthy eco-safe alternatives you will not find anywhere else. Only biodegradable caskets are allowed, including cardboard box caskets which can be purchased for only $20. Instead of tombstones, graves are marked with large stones found nearby, piles of rocks and pebbles, flowering trees, miniature gardens, and eco-sculptures: handmade sculptures which provide homes to wild animals such as birds and squirrels. And just think: NO plastic flowers! Friends and family can contribute by decorating and creating your casket from natural materials as well as producing beautiful long-lasting artwork from natural materials that will not harm the environment.

Think no one will know where your grave is? Guess again. The staff at Ramsey creek keeps detailed maps of the area, outlining each plot and the information for each piece of burial ground so relatives and future descendants will have no trouble finding your resting place. Each customer also gets one page in their online database for the deceased. You can include pictures, your life history, even a last message you would like to leave for future generations. All of your information can be stored and accessed for future use.

The natural setting at Ramsey Creek Preserve allows indigenous animals to remain in their natural habitat without being pushed out by commercial construction or by flattening the land and removing trees. Beautiful parklike and forest settings abound at Ramsey Creek which allow the animals to remain. It creates a comforting, natural setting among trees, rocks, shrubs, and flowers, rather than clipped and manicured laws with rows upon rows of unnatural-looking tombstones. (More ..)


"At Ramsey Creek Nature Preserve, family and friends are encouraged to create grave markers from natural local materials that are both beautiful and will stand the test of time."

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/580807/ramsey_creek_preserve_natural_cemetery.html

Link to Ramsey Creek Preserve:
http://memorialecosystems.com/

[Belial]

30. Feed me to the fish..

[Arkansas Granny]

32. So far, my plan is to be cremated. My kids have already decided

that they will scatter my ashes at the creek where we did a lot of camping while they were growing up. It's a beautiful spot with a lot of good memories.

A green burial is an option I would consider, but I haven't been able to find any information about them in Arkansas.

[Ohio Joe]

35. Nope, leaving my body to science - nt

[Stevenmarc]

36. I'm going to be made into bling

http://www.lifegem.com/secondary/LifeGemGalleryMain2006.aspx

[WorseBeforeBetter]

79. I'm going to send that link to my loved ones...

and find out who would *wear* me. Hmm, wonder how much bling could be squeezed out of a 5'9" 135 lb woman...

[Mugweed]

37. Soylent Green

Even the name has "green" in it.

[jkshaw]

38. I wanted my ashes to be scattered in my 2 1/2 acre

rose and peony garden. Ashes to ashes, so to speak. Or ashes to fertilizer, more or less. The family's fine with it, but Dad wondered if I'd be allowed to do that by the county (we have a small farm). Since I have only another year before I'm eighty, I'd like to research this subject. I live in Utah. I think even cremation is frowned on here among Mormons, but I'm far from being a Mormon.

[Akoto]

39. My grandmother was very green about this ...

We were very close. When she got older, she made her desires very clear, and she wanted me to make sure they happened.

"I don't want any damn funeral. Just have me cremated and dump what's left in the river, okay?"

"Yes, grandma."

She had kind of a grim sense of humor about life. ;)

[RiverStone]

54. Well, she knew how to get to the point!

Hope she had a good journey :)

[nickinSTL]

40. I've thought a bit about it...

not specifically from an environmental perspective, but...

One thing I've considered is donating my body to science...there're enough weird things about me, someone might be interested, particularly in my brain :evilgrin:

I hadn't heard of the Tibetan sky burial...very similar idea to the Zoroastrian Tower of Silence...where the body is put on top of a tower to be picked clean by vultures.

http://altreligion.about.com/od/ritualsandpractices/a/zoro_funeral.htm

I'd be completely fine with that idea, myself.

[madokie]

41. Burn my old stinking ass

and take the ashes, dig a hole to put them in and plant a tree on the spot. That way I'll always have a home that I can come back too if ever need be. A place to call home as I go about my travels through the spirit world spreading good, watching over the poor and weak. Holding hands that have no one to hold, giving a sense of belonging to the lost. Just don't put my dead body in a box in a hole in the ground.

Actually I plan to donate my body to science for training or study, I just haven't gotten around to doing it yet.

[XemaSab]

42. Cemeteries can be valuable green space.

There's a green cemetery near here that is like walking through a grove of trees, with the occasional small rock to remind you that there are people resting there. Some of the rocks have a person's name, but a lot of them do not, just a little design.

It's very peaceful.

[shanti]

45. i will be planted in a saline solution

the ocean.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

46. Ok, So This Is One Of The Most Unexpected And Strange OP's I've Seen. What Exactly Is So Bad About

wood with a body inside? That's damaging to your kiddos how exactly?

Consider me completely confused on this one...

[RiverStone]

53. Don't understand your confusion, but to answer...

What exactly is so bad about wood with a body inside?

Nothing at all; I just would not want any chemicals used in the prep process and the container materials would need to be 100% biodegradable.


That's damaging to your kiddos how exactly?

Nothing at all; I just would not want them to have to guess on a plan for my return to the earth. If I leave specific instructions, that would be one less (big) thing for them to think about. And I do know for sure that whatever instructions I may leave will be very miminal.

(((((keeping it simple)))))

In life and death. :)

[alarimer]

48. I plan to be eaten by a shark.

I am serious. When I decide I have lived long enough, I will go out to see in a little boat and then lower myself over the side (suitably anesthetized in some manner), attach a chum bag to myself, and then wait.

I guess maybe that sounds a little gruesome. I am not sure I could carry it out, but it is the ultimate recycling.

[flvegan]

68. This was actually my first thought...sort of.

Once I die, harvest my usable "parts" then cut me into chum, freeze it and dump me in the ocean in the gulf somewhere.

[Iggo]

49. Flip a coin.

Heads: my body goes to the cannibals.

Tails: my body goes to the necrophiliacs.

[htuttle]

52. Thought about sky burial myself

But the trip to Tibet (and getting the monks consent) would seem to be a problem, as you noted.

[burythehatchet]

55. I want to be fed to hogs so I can BE your hot dog

(sorry if you're having hot dogs at the moment)

[Lisa0825]

56. One word -- TAXIDERMY!

So my cats won't be lonely without me.

:evilgrin:


But seriously, cremation with my ashes scattered over the water off Cozumel. My strict instructions are for not a dime to be paid for anything but the basic processing, and instead to send my best friends to Cozumel to talk about old times, smile, laugh, and cry some. Whatever money is saved compared to the cost of a full funeral will go to the animal sanctuary where I volunteer.

[noamnety]

57. Whatever's cheapest.

green or cremation, my plans afterward don't require a pickled body.

[nadinbrzezinski]

58. An orthodox Jewish burial, no I am not orthodox

but being buried on the buff in a hole is pretty green

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

59. I want people to cut a bunch of trees down, build a pyre, soak it in diesel fuel and light me up.

[AZBlue]

60. Cremation and added to a coral reef to revitalize the ocean!

[RiverStone]

64. Cool --- are not coral reefs the largest living things on the planet?

Interesting idea.

[AZBlue]

72. Wow...I'm not sure if they are.

Seems like they would be though...

This process isn't that expensive really, not that much more than just cremation. And coral reefs are so beautiful, it's heartbreaking to see what we've done to them, so I like the idea of helping them come back in my own little way. :)

[scarletwoman]

61. The biggest problem is, there are all these state laws about what happens to your dead body.

Basically, after you're dead, the STATE has control over your corpse.

I've given my instructions to all my family members. I want to be cremated, my ashes put in a hole in the ground, and a Norway pine planted in the hole. It will cause the least hassle and least expense for the surviving members of my family.

I'd prefer to be buried whole and left to rot to nourish the earth, but the laws make that nearly impossible without a whole lot of extra hassle. Cremation is the simplest alternative.

sw

[david13]

62. Bury me in the desert where it's nice and hot

That way, if there is a hell, and I go there, the heat won't bother me.
dc

[Bigmack]

63. I wanted to be weighted down....

and sunk in the crabbing grounds in our area. Bigger crabs for everybody! Feeding my friends one last time.

[Eryemil]

65. I want to my carcass to be donated to science

Maybe some cute research assistant will get a thrill out of handling my considerable assets.

:evilgrin:

[NaturalHigh]

69. I'm afraid that my wish isn't legal.

I would like to be dragged out into the forest as a feast to all the animals. Believe me, I would make several good meals.

[VenusRising]

70. You could become part of a reef.

I just happened upon this yesterday while Stumbling. I thought it was pretty cool...especially this part:

An increase of over 60% in only 9 months!

Recent marine monitoring study conducted in December 2008 by DERM (Department of Environmental Resources Management) revealed that 1625 fish of 35 different species were observed in 14 different fish counts at different locations within the NMR vs. 1027 fish of 29 different species in March 2008.


http://www.nmreef.com/Neptune-Memorial-Reef-About-the-Reef/

[Arugula Latte]

71. I'm going to donate my body to science, so after they're done with it,

I'm guessing they'll cremate me. Maybe not, though. If a green burial is possible after that, I'll do it.

[Roadless]

73. I'll probably jump off a cliff in a wilderness when I'm 85

and let the coyotes and bears have dinner. I'm not interested in sitting around in a hospital while I pee myself.

[-..__...]

75. Sprinkle of ashes mixed with gun powder...

and reloaded into new/usable ammo would be something different.

I haven't done the math or consulted the reload data/tables, but at 185 lbs and incinerated, I figure I could be stuffed into a couple of 1,000 round cases of 5.56mm or 7.62x39mm.

[MrSlayer]

81. I'm going to be fed to a leopard.

After I die in a tragic and bizarre hopscotch accident.

[InvisibleTouch]

82. I'm with Edward Abbey on this.

Except I don't even want the old sleeping bag. Just put my remains in the ground, preferably somewhere in the tropics, so the constituent elements can return to the Earth and nourish the soil. Truthfully, I have thought about this, and I'm happy at the thought of all those soil organisms, worms, and arthropods processing my remains back into the life cycle of the planet. I sure won't need those parts anymore, by then! And I hate to see resources go to waste.

Sadly, I don't know a single person or group of people I can trust, at this point, to carry out my wishes. People seem to want a specific grave site location that they can come visit, complete with official ceremony and headstone and what-not. Except that I don't feel any personal connection to that world, so I don't feel obligated to provide that service to whichever people may survive me. I do feel a personal connection with the ecosystem, though, and it seems like the final act of one's lifetime should be of benefit to the world, rather than pandering to the selfish dictates of society. So I still have some plans to work out. Hopefully I have a good bit of time yet before I really have to worry about it! :)

[1]

83. in our tradition, i will be pushed out on an ice floe...