Environmental Funerals - Go Green After Death

Dying is part of life and so are funerals. But arecasket. If you use a coffin made of used paper,
you aware of how much damage we cause theburied in a place where there are trees and
earth even after death? Did you know that 60shrubs, the body will slowly become a part of the
million trees are axed every year to build coffins?environment.
Gases emittted during cremations account for 16An alternative method would be to cremate
percent of the UKs mercury emissions.bodies before the embalming process. If the body
Construction of vaults for burials lead to theis embalmed, cremating it leads to air pollution
introduction of about 1.6 million tons of concrete inbecause of the toxic gases released during the
the soil. There are around 56 million deaths eachcremation.
year and this figure is expected to double byHeadstones obstruct the growth of trees and
2040, so the situation will only worsen.lead to pollution. Thus you may choose to have a
We don't really stop to think of the materials thatliving memorial for yourself or your loved one in
are used to manufacture items like caskets thatthe form of a tree. If this becomes a practice
are used in traditional funeral services. Accordingthen it will be easier for the survivors of the
to recent research, the quantity of metal used todecedent to cope with the loss because they will
make the caskets used in North America is equalhave a living substitute for the person who is no
to the amount of metal used to manufacture themore and also lead to the planting of millions of
Golden Gate Bridge. Some funeral service ritualstrees. In England there are more than two
sometimes require embalming. Since thesehundred environmentally-friendly burial sites. With
embalming fluids are supposed to retard theall that choice you can choose one close to your
process of decomposition of the body by inhibitinghome.
the growth of bacteria, they also inhibit theAnother novel environment-friendly option is to
growth of bacteria and other important enzymesget your ashes mixed with reef material. The
in the soil.materials are then placed in the ocean. Eventually
To prevent all this damage to the environment,it becomes a new reef. This promotes the
we can now choose to opt for greener funeralgrowth of organisms that grow on reefs and
services.restores the ecological balance of the planet.
Green burial tipsWith so many options, it is now much easier to
One way of ensuring that a funeral isplan a funeral service and burial that will not harm
environmentally friendly is to use a biodegradablethe environment.