10 Greener Ways to Get Rid of a Dead Body
Every year in the US alone, traditional burial wastes 827,060 gallons of embalming fluid, 90,272 tons of steel in caskets and 1,636,000 tons of reinforced concrete in vaults.* And that's not even mentioning the precious land that could be put to much better use. If you'd like your final act to do less environmental damage, here are 10 greener ways to dispose of your body after your die.
1. Consider a "green burial." You'll be encased in a biodegradable casket or shroud, and you won't be embalmed with artificial substances that would delay your decomposition. Instead of a tombstone, your survivors could mark your resting spot with a tree or bush. Green burial sites such as the Ramsey Creek Preserve in South Carolina don't irrigate the land or use peticides or herbicides, instead opting to preserve the site in its natural state.
2. Want to speed up your decomposition? Swedish company Promessa offers to freeze-dry your dead body in liquid nitrogen, bombard it with high-frequency vibrations until it's pulverized, and seal your powder remains in a coffin made of cornstarch. This environmentally friendly process will leave you and your coffin thoroughly decomposed within 6 to 12 months.
3. Or you could make like baseball legend Ted Williams and be "cryo-preserved." As soon as your body is clinically deceased, you'll be frozen and stored until some point in the future when technology may exist not only to revive you but cure whatever condition caused your demise. But you're still taking up space, probably pointlessly, so let's move on to...
4. Have you always loved the water? You could be cremated and buried at sea. Companies like Sea Burial LLC will help you organize a beautiful, peaceful service. Its website describes idyllic scenes of services at sunset, flowers strewn across the water, your loved ones partaking in a quiet service and listening to calming music. Post-funeral water skiing optional.
5. Reef-er madness. If you'd like an aquatic resting space, but don't want to end up in the bellies of hundreds of fish, you could have your ashes encased in concrete reefs. The Atlanta-based Eternal Reefs, Inc. will put your cremated remains inside artificial reefs to bolster natural coastal reef formations.
6. Make space your "final frontier." James "Scotty" Doohan of Star Trek fame, astronaut Gordon Cooper, and 200 others made outer space their final resting place on April 28, 2007 when their ashes were ejected from a rocket. The space burial was operated by Celestis, Inc. which offers memorial spaceflights for a price that, depending on your budget, might be a little too "out of this world." (Subtract 50 "green points" for the impact of the burnt rocket fuel to get you up there.)
7. Afraid your loved ones will feel a bit peckish after your memorial service? Tell them to make like the Yanomami rainforest indians who eat their dead. Have Aunt Mabel pick up a Yanomami cookbook which will show her how to smash your bones into powder, mix them with banana paste, and BAM! Your friends and family will have a delightful post-funeral treat!
8. How about excarnation? Yes, it's what it sounds like... "ex" meaning "removal of" and "carn" meaning "flesh." Zoroastrians, a small religious sect with members in Iran and India, leave their dead on towers where vultures come and feast on the bodies.
9. Donate yourself to a "body farm." Anyone can donate their body to medical research, but why not offer yourself to one of several body farms at institutions like the University of Tennessee - Knoxville, Western Carolina University, and Texas State University? Researchers will observe your body as it decomposes either fully exposed to the elements, buried in a shallow grave or even stuffed into a car trunk.
10. Go out with a bang. If you're feeling a little gonzo, follow the last act of notorious journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson. On August 20, 2005, in a ceremony paid for by friend Johnny Depp, the good doctor's ashes were blasted from a cannon perched on a 153-ft tower Thompson designed himself. Also blasted with his remains were red, white, blue and green fireworks that exploded to the to the tune of Thompson's favorite song, Mr. Tambourine Man by Bob Dylan.
* Source: Casket and Funeral Association of America, Cremation Association of North America, Doric Inc., The Rainforest Action Network, Mary Woodsen, Pre-Posthumous Society, Wikipedia.org
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