Saying Goodbye to Life with an Environmentally-Friendly Burial

[The Straight Story]

Saying Goodbye to Life with an Environmentally-Friendly Burial


Going green can entail not only how a person lives life on the planet, but how they leave it as well. Jane Hillhouse, founder of FinalFootprint.com, is part of a growing movement to offer environmentally-friendly burials that eliminate toxic chemicals and reduce the consumption of wood and metals commonly part of funerals. Advocates point to the enormous amount of materials that get buried in the earth as reasons why this new method makes sense.

According to Hillhouse, the United States each year buries the following in cemeteries: 827,060 gallons of embalming fluid; 90,272 tons of steel for caskets and vaults; 2,700 tons of copper and bronze for lining caskets; 30,000,000 board feet of wood for caskets; and 1.6 million tons of concrete for burial vaults.

The alternative involves skipping the embalming process and using coffins that more easily decompose in the ground.

http://www.allgov.com/Unusual_News/ViewNews/Saying_Goodbye_to_Life_with_an_Environmentally_Friendly_Burial_100420

[Tailormyst]

1. I'm being cremated.

Cheaper and takes up way less room.

[KansDem]

2. I'm opting for cremation and scattering-at-sea...

In the words of A. C. Swinburne:

From too much love of living,
From hope and fear set free,
We thank with brief thanksgiving
Whatever gods may be
That no life lives forever;
That dead men rise up never;
That even the weariest river
Winds somewhere safe to sea.

[CurtEastPoint]

3. Cremation uses natural gas and emits smoke and what else? I chose it also

over burial but there are concerns w/cremation. Anyone fill me in?

[Raschel]

4. Sounds great. Funeral costs are ridiculous. I'll take a cardboard box.

[demigoddess]

5. if they would bury people in the natural way, no embalming and contact with the earth

our bodies would decompose naturally in less than a year, but the authorities in the past have considered this a health hazard. Yet, if you look at it, murder victims have been left to decompose naturally, sometimes very close to people, and have not caused problems. Personally, I hate the idea of all that formaldehyde getting into our soil and water. More and more people are opting for immediate cremation.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

6. I am opting for the Soylent Green option n/t

[pipi_k]

9. Some peanut butter and creative packaging and you've got a popular snack

:7

[bikebloke]

7. Ideally...

I'd prefer a cotton shroud or cardboard box. Then have a tree planted over top. My body would nurture the tree, which would nurture its own wee eco-system.

[Raschel]

11. Sounds nice, as opposed to all the elaborate measures taken to avoid acknowledging the effects of

death. Our bodies should decay and return to the earth.

I never did understand spending a lot of money on a casket which will be buried in dirt.

I don't like wakes either.

[Lance_Boyle]

8. Psssh - the mafia's been at the forefront of the Eco-burial movement for decades.

No casket, no embalming, and only sometimes a little bit of lead or a rolled-up carpet.

They charge less, too.

[Raschel]

12. The fish benefit too!

[pipi_k]

10. Oh, just throw me out for the animals to eat

I don't mind being coyote chow

[WorseBeforeBetter]

13. Mix me in with a reef ball.

http://www.eternalreefs.com/

[davsand]

14. I want to be cremated and scattered during a fly-over the GOP convention.

Hopefully they will all be looking up when it happens. I figure I've been a pain in the ass to the GOP my whole life and I may as well go out as a cinder in their eyes...


:evilgrin:



Laura