Also on the website is information about cremation.  I guess it's intuitive that it wouldn't be energy efficient, but the overall energy output to cremate one body is equivalent to a car making 84 trips to the moon!!!!

in order to promote their service  obviously they are going to slam other methods

84 trips to the moon the turn the average body into less than 10 pounds  of ash  seems extravagent ?

don't you think ?

a cardbord box is just as good ....................... but burial is probably more impacting on the environment than bbq'ing

or you could go for what they used to do in Tibet the sky burial  ..... hack the body into pieces and feed em to the vultures

I like the idea of being green but in Tennesse that would be completely illegal. The law is rigged to guarantee you spend a good chunk of money on funerals. Forget cardboard box, pine boxes are illegal in Tenn. A few years ago an effort was made to give people more "budget" options and the state legislature defeated it. It shouldn't be too big a surprise several of the key legislators on the issue owned funeral homes. For some reason they saw no need to give Tennesseans cheaper options than that.

Yikes!  Sorry.  That's not one body, that's natural gas used by the industry in North America in one year!  Sheesh.  Still a lot though.

From the website:

At first glance, cremation does seem like a more earth friendly option. Like most modem, natural-gas devices, the technology is becoming more efficient and clean burning; however the amount of non-renewable fossil fuel needed to cremate bodies in North America is equivalent to a car making 84 trips to the Moon and back… each year.

I'M TOTALLY IN.

i guess i'm going to put this in my will or something...

sigh,

putting in your will is useless.  Funeral arrangement desires need to be known before the will is read.  THe only way is to discuss it with family and make your wishes known (remembering that they can do whatever they want in practice).

Maybe the will's not the best place, Sigh.  That's usually not read till long after the fact-- a list of instructions addressed to family, or a pre-arrangement with a funeral home might be a better route to go.

eee... never thought of that.

i'll make sure that my husband and my brother see that page then.

thanks for that reminder!!

Green burial would be my choice.  Wrap my body in a bio degradable shroud, lower into a hole, cover with dirt, replace undergrowth or grass.

I wonder if it is legal in any Canadian cemetaries or if special ones need to be started?

I heard that it is against the law to scatter cremation ashes without permission - but no one around here seems to worry about it, and neither did my family when we wanted to scatter ashes!

Of course there is always the dustbuster ..........

no dustbuster for me, please... man, i've vaccuumed, swept, and dustbusted all my life.  i want my death to be completely free of that kind of activity!!

 I wonder how much fossil fuel we ourselves would create?

Hmmm now there is an idea can instead of funerals and cremation why not just become processed firelogs ?

 I want to donate whatever parts they can use, and they can incinerate the rest, or feed it to the lions at African Lion Safari.

Soylent Green isn't a bad idea either.

Sure, it's legal, if the cemetery bylaws allow it. Muslim and Jewish cemeteries do it. ask your local funeral director.

I want a viking funeral, myself.

I'm one of these folks that already knows what's ahead of me in death.

In our cemetries one can be cremated or buried.  My husband was cremated in the same cemetry as my sister and dad. (also his parents and brother).

His ashes are in a native garden section, surrounded by eucalyptus trees and native plants. There is a rock with  a plaque showing two pages of an opened book . One page has John's details - and the other page will one day show mine. It's usual to place the ashes in a metal canister, but I insisted that they simply be placed in the earth. John believed we were "star "stuff" and it seemed right to me that we should both return to nature.

At first I thought it was strange to know for sure where I would end my days - but now I'm comfortable with it. It is a place of familiarity, with the sounds of native birds and insects, and the smell of eucalyptus leaves. It's a beautiful place to sit and reflect.

That's nice Pilgrims. My mom took me to the cemetary she wants to be burried in. One day when I visit there, I will remember being there with her.

I always thought this would be a grand way to go!

This image being the funeral pyre of Valeria, woman of Conan the Barbarian.

Works for me...

I wouldn't mind ultimately enriching the soil.  

Having been present at many hundreds of interments, the reality is that in spite of embalming, concrete vaults and steel or bronze caskets, you eventually do. All those things do is delay the inevitable. It really is "earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust".

Unless you've been mummified! Some are astonishingly lifelike. Ya know, people today pay for mummification. and to be placed inside caves in a certain arid area, I can't remember where...somewhere in the USA...

Yeah part of mummifician is having your brains pulled out through your nostrills ..... if you were not dead before ....

Having been present at many hundreds of interments

Hundreds ? LOL Are you a grave digger or a grave robber ?

None of the above. Clergy with 30+ years of experience. I have normally done between 20 and 30 funerals a year.

DKS, That must give you a special perspective on things.

Not saying I want to be mummified, just wild that people do that nowadays.  This guy had his dog mummified. I think it's fascinating to see mummies and bog people, though disquieting too. You feel a sort of reverence for this guy who died thousands of years ago.

You feel a sort of reverence for this guy who died thousands of years ago.

Not as much reverence for a thousands of years old dusty smell

And the gasses can kill you, hence the curse of the mummy.