What do you want done with your bodily remains?

I want a natural burial. In a natural burial, you are not pumped with any chemicals, dressed all fancy, or made up with crappy makeup. Instead of an expensive and non-biodegradable steel or varnished wood coffin, I will be put in a biodegradable, natural shroud or paper that can be written on by friends and family (before I’m put in it, of course).

Then, I’ll be buried in a section of land specifically marked for this purpose, in a special designated natural forest (there are a handful just for this, scattered across the world). Instead of machinery, friends and family will carry my shroud to my burial site.

There will be a short, private, non-religious ceremony, and instead of a big tombstone, I will have a marker with my name and dates, made of indigenous (natural to the area) rock or wood. That’s my plan :D Call me a hippie, but I like the idea of leaving a minimal footprint on the Earth after my death.

Traditional burials and cremations are horrible for the Earth, and are actually more expensive.

Traditional burials: A ten-acre swatch of cemetery ground will contain enough coffin wood to construct more than 40 homes, nearly a thousand tons of casket steel and another twenty thousand tons of concrete for vaults. Across North America enough metal is diverted into coffin and vault production each year to build the Golden Gate Bridge, and enough concrete is used to build a two-lane highway from Toronto to Montreal… and back again.

The formaldehyde used is horrible for the planet. We bury nearly a million gallons of embalming fluid every year in North America, some of which eventually leaches out and runs into surrounding soil and groundwater.

Traditional cremation: During the cremation process, a large part of the body (especially the organs) and other soft tissue is vaporized and oxidized due to the heat, and the gases are discharged through the exhaust system.

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.

The major emissions from crematories include: nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, mercury vapour, hydrogen fluoride, hydrogen chloride, and other heavy metals, including persistent organic pollutants.

Source for traditional/cremation statistics and info: http://www.naturalburial.coop/