79 replies to this topic

[keywestkeely]

I know that there are many who don't agree with the very idea of cremation--either for religious reasons, or because of the fact that it just  "creeps them out"!

As far as the green factor is concerned, do you feel that it's greener to be buried, and somehow let your remains contribute themselves to the soil?

Or do you feel that, with the world's resources dwindling, cremation is a much more considerate alternative for the environment?

[Yoginitrish]

I don't known which is a more "green" option. With traditional burial, I am certain embalming chemicals are not very environmentally friendly and that coffins are not necessarily the easiest to decompose. With cremation, everything is finished instantly--but is there a pollution factor? I know that cemeteries are running out of space and that more and more mausoleums are being built to accommodate upward burials. It is all very morbid, but unfortunately a part of life.

[mariaandrea]

I intend to be cremated and will stipulate that no embalming or caskets are used in the process. Modern crematories do emit some air pollution but the technology is getting better. I just don't want to take up any space at all when I'm gone when that space could be used for better purposes. The problem I see with burial is that it isn't like the very old days when you could bury a loved on in a plain pine box out under an apple tree in the orchard. I could actually support that because healthy decomposition would actually occur to some purpose. With embalming and elaborate caskets delaying and altering decomposition, and huge tracts of land whose only purpose is to hold graves, it just doesn't make sense to me environmentally.

[sammilynn]

If I could help the planet out after I'm dead by my ashes being used in the soil, then I'm all for it.... I'm dead anyway, not like I need my body for anything... but, I don't know if the ashes would actually have anything to contribute to the soil, so for now, I would have to say no to the part.

BUT, I do like the idea of less land being used to cemeteries, so this would definitely be a way to save some nature, if more people were willing to be cremated. (why do you need your body to be in the ground? not like you're going to need it any more, so stop taking up space in the afterlife!! --no offence..)

So in that way, cremation could help the environment at least a little bit... more space for the animals.

[Yoginitrish]

From a financial standpoint, cremation is a much more economically sustainable option. I believe the final price tag is 10-percent of the cost of embalming and a funeral. The old pine box under the apple tree is probably more environmentally friendly option. Unfortunately, we are running out of apple trees!

[mariaandrea]

Yoginitrish, on 08 October 2011 - 04:03 PM, said:

The old pine box under the apple tree is probably more environmentally friendly option. Unfortunately, we are running out of apple trees!

LOL! Exactly!

I have always wondered why, especially as we run out of space, we don't bury caskets on-end rather than laying them out. I mean, does it matter if you're standing up if you're dead? It seems like it would save a lot of space and loved-ones would still get that graveside service so many people seem to need.

[sammilynn]

mariaandrea, on 08 October 2011 - 04:10 PM, said:

LOL! Exactly!

I have always wondered why, especially as we run out of space, we don't bury caskets on-end rather than laying them out. I mean, does it matter if you're standing up if you're dead? It seems like it would save a lot of space and loved-ones would still get that graveside service so many people seem to need.

HAHA never thought of doing that! Not a bad idea, I must admit. You are dead... what does it matter what way your body is laying? I know we need to respect the dead, but we CAN do that, while respecting the environment...

[Yoginitrish]

mariaandrea, on 08 October 2011 - 04:10 PM, said:

LOL! Exactly!

I have always wondered why, especially as we run out of space, we don't bury caskets on-end rather than laying them out. I mean, does it matter if you're standing up if you're dead? It seems like it would save a lot of space and loved-ones would still get that graveside service so many people seem to need.

I imagine there are mausoleum skyscrapers in Asia. I can see it as part of the Dubai skyline. Seriously, dead bodies are creepy--whether cremated or buried.  What happens when cementaries become full? Part of Washington Crossing Park in Pennsylvania was recently turned into a National Cementary. There are already thousands there (I think it has just been open for a couple years).

[neodoxa]

Personally, I don't want to subject my body to a pit of flames and incineration...  I'd much rather decompose naturally.  I wish there was a way to just get buried without all of the embalming chemicals, but I think that is illegal.  Haha.

But seriously... why do people want to be thrown into an inferno as the last thing their body does on this planet?  Haha.

Neodoxa

[mariaandrea]

Ok, dead people don't freak me out. Using the energy waste from cremation doesn't freak me out. If we have to have cemeteries I'm all for making them more efficient. But, a skyscraper mausoleum actually does freak me out. Can you imagine a building like that being damaged or destroyed by an earthquake, hurricane, tornado or something like that? Eeewww. It seems like a waste of building materials too, but I guess I just found out that I do have an "ick" factor on this subject.

[Bababooey]

I think if society had a healthier attitude toward the reality of life and death, and we could take all religious connotations out of it, people would probably adjust the idea readily. It makes a lot of sense, and the heat emitted by a crematorium shouldn't be wasted. I guess you could say the same thing about heat used in bakery ovens, or hospitals to burn medical waste, but there are probably health code violations you'd have to deal with.

[artistry]

Personally, I have expressed my wishes, to be cremated. The only thing I have requested, is that I be stuck with a pin, to make sure I have expired. The fire does not matter after that. As far as the environment goes, I would think that if the ashes are put into the ocean or the sea, or scattered in the wind, there should not be any great impact. Wood, steel and bones take a long time, if ever to assist in helping the soil. So as a non-expert, I would think that cremation is the more, environmentally friendly choice of the two.

[NeilPearson]

I think it is going to have so little effect on the environment either way that it doesn't really matter.  It should be what you want.  Personally, it creeps me out more to think about being eaten by bugs and locked in a box.

[Yoginitrish]

artistry, on 09 October 2011 - 10:07 AM, said:

Personally, I have expressed my wishes, to be cremated. The only thing I have requested, is that I be stuck with a pin, to make sure I have expired. The fire does not matter after that. As far as the environment goes, I would think that if the ashes are put into the ocean or the sea, or scattered in the wind, there should not be any great impact. Wood, steel and bones take a long time, if ever to assist in helping the soil. So as a non-expert, I would think that cremation is the more, environmentally friendly choice of the two.

Ha! You have been requested to be stuck with a pin? I think final wishes, whatever they may be, are highly personal and cultural. The image of a tribal funeral pyre keeps flashing through my head.

[sammilynn]

artistry, on 09 October 2011 - 10:07 AM, said:

Personally, I have expressed my wishes, to be cremated. The only thing I have requested, is that I be stuck with a pin, to make sure I have expired. The fire does not matter after that. As far as the environment goes, I would think that if the ashes are put into the ocean or the sea, or scattered in the wind, there should not be any great impact. Wood, steel and bones take a long time, if ever to assist in helping the soil. So as a non-expert, I would think that cremation is the more, environmentally friendly choice of the two.

The pin idea actually makes sense... I would want them to make sure I'm actually dead before they throw me in the inferno... seems like common sense.

I want to be cremated, just because I see no reason for my body to take up space for no reason. I'm not religious really, although I still believe in Heaven and Hell, so I have no specific way I believe I need to be buried.

That said, you still need to respect the body... but that doesn't necessarily mean they need to be buried in a $10 000 box.  

Just make sure I'm dead, have a little get together that is NOT sad, just remember good times, and then cremate me.

[marale60]

In some countries where space is limited you have no choice but to be cremated after a certain number of years after death. They just dig you up burn you and in some cases don't even inform the family. I am talking about small European nations like Belgium. So for me the choice isn't there, but if I had to choose I'd take cremation anyway.

[Bababooey]

The business of death is a big industry. The funeral business is incredibly popular, and it's very easy to get grief-stricken family members of pay far for more things that they don't even need. We need to rethink our attitudes toward death if we're ever going to deal with how to dispose of bodies in the most efficient way for the health of the planet.

[marale60]

You are correct...the management of death is the sixth largest industry in the world according to one report I saw a few years ago. The people in India have it right, they take the body down to a funeral pyre at the Ganges or other sacred river and burn it and then drop the ashes into the water. That must be cost effective, eh?

[Tom Servo]

I have no ethical problems with cremation; however, the greenest option is a natural burial, no casket. I wanted to be cremated for a while until I watched Six Feet Under which put the idea in my head of being buried without a casket. Seems like the way to go.

[nick87]

Dead bodies are, well, not very environmentally friendly no matter how you dispose of them. The reason coffins are buried 6 feet is so that any runoff won't contaminate water, so I'm a bit uncomfortable with the fact that ashes are able to be in the air we breath and just poured somewhere. On the other hand, I respect that it's someone's last dying wish, and unless there was a direct cause of an illness from it, I wouldn't fight against it.
Personally, I don't want to be cremated because I want to return to the earth as a zombie, and you can't do that if your body is just ashes. I mean, for moral reasons? Yeah, the moral reasons one sounds better (but it's still secretly because of the zombie thing).