Sunday, April 20, 2008

Eco-Friendly Funerals

I know there are a lot of ways to be environmentally friendly, but one I had never thought of was making sure to have an eco-friendly funeral. Not that you should be burning coal, or pouring oil on the ground during a funeral, but is the current eco-trend going a little overboard? This article from the Associated Press lists the ways people are having more environmentally friendly funerals, and it seems to me it mostly comes down to the materials of the coffin. The article seems to suggest that you should have a biodegradable coffin and to not have the body embalmed.

I had a couple of initial thoughts. One - having bodies in a biodegradable coffin makes me think of some sort of pet cemetery scenario. I don't know about you - but I don't want to have to fight zombies, and if normal coffins are what's keeping that from happening, then I'm all for them! Two - wouldn't it be easier to get cremated and have your ashes scattered. Seems a little more eco-friendly to me.

1 comment:

jason h said...

The issue with cremation is the emissions and fuel consumption from the furnace. Imagine the temperature required to cremate human bones. An alternative to cremation is cryogenic freezing, although I am not sure of the details. You can volunteer to be plasticized if you wish for your corpse to be an immortal member of the popular "Human Body World" exhibit. This may not alleviate your concerns because...how do you kill a plastic zombie?