Cremation is becoming greener, with better emission controls and eco-friendly urns (http://www.richardlamb.com/merchandise/urns/ecofriendlyurns.asp) in bamboo, paper, corn starch and other natural materials. It’s considered greener than traditional burial, but obviously it’s no match for a true green burial. Unfortunately, green cemeteries are still rare in the U.S.

Thank you for raising these issues in the context of environmental responsibility.

I would like to suggest one change to your otherwise excellent rubric of “TRADITIONAL BURIAL = LANDFILL….CREMATION = INCINERATION… .DONATION = RECYCLING…. GREEN BURIAL = COMPOSTING.”

As indicated in previous comments, the use of formaldehyde for embalming
and the use of expensive, non-biodegradable “caskets” are not really “traditional” in the broader perspective of human history. After all, “to dust you shall return” is very ancient language. A more accurate reference to modern practices would be “conventional burial.”

Also “conventional” today are well-intentioned efforts to party away the natural pain of loss. At best, the party approach tends to pile up more plastic and environmental waste. At worst, it tends to distort the bereavement process, in a culture where many feel the need to escape from uncomfortable feelings–and apologize for tears. Healing through grief takes time, and a real celebration of life does not deny this essential truth.

As a burial fellowship activist, I watch over and care for the bodies of the dead in my community, and I educate others to participate as well. Facing death in this intimate way, I have witnessed–again and again–how these sacred practices can bring extraordinary consolation and healing to a broken world. I know that I can celebrate more fully and joyfully with those who also share my grief in times of loss.

Again, thank you for opening this conversation, which needs to be sustained in discussing our funeral plans with those we love.

Regina Sandler-Phillips
http://isabellafreedman.org/sacredundertaking

But maybe I should write it down, just in case I pop of earlier than I´d like to go. & end up in a “posh” box…. a true nightmare!

Having read too much Edgar Allan Poe, I’m really concerned about premature burial. So were a lot of people in the 1800′s, because they didn’t have EKGs or other ways of telling if people were really dead. So there were all sorts of inventions, such as bells that went over the grave with a string down into the coffin, so that if people were just comatose and woke up, they could signal. The occasional misburial of a still-living person may also have helped give rise to legends of vampires.

I’m also thinking of how in Huxley’s “Brave New World”, the dead are liquified and vaporized and the valuable minerals in their bodies recovered. When one character for some reason isn’t disposed of in this way, another character laments that he is “wasting his phosphorus”.

Ancient Zoroastrians exposed the dead in “Towers of Silence”, to be eaten by the birds. Their modern descendants, the Parsis of India, still do this. Unfortunately, most of the vultures in India have been killed off, so this is not working too well.

I also want my body to go for research when I die. But I would like my skull to be extracted first, so that at my memorial service, someone can hold it up and say, “Alas, poor Ridley! I knew him! A fellow of infinite jest! Of most excellent fancy…Where are all your jests now?”

OK, actually, I want to be fed to the zombies. Or better, my cats. Like the dying Audrey in “Little Shop of Horrors”, who wants to be fed to the plant, to be part of it.

When I die, bury me low
So I can hear the petroleum flow
It’s the sweetest sound I ever will know
The rolling hills of New Jersey. (See, I want the petroleum still to be in the ground, not having been taken out to make plastic.)