100 Ways to Reduce Your Impact

Step 90: Cremation instead of a burial

As hard as it may be to cremate your loved relatives, and pets, cremation uses less energy than a burial. Burials use backhoes, and digger trucks, and gasoline.

Modern cremation utilizes air filtration and produces little in terms of air pollution as compared with excavation equipment.

Thanks GoodHumanGuidlines!!

Sorry I do not have a picture. You wouldn't want a picture would you?

Comments

[heaven11pa]

we are promoting an environment friendly topics here, and instead of cremation, please help suggest to go on burial, the body can go in the state of decomposition and mother earth would be very happy for that.... we can turn the dead body into a decomposed one. ty

[A good name]

Actually this isn't environmentally friendly. The mercury in people's fillings, as well as lots of other aspects, make cremation a very bad idea. Instead, there's an alternative; burying yourself in a field (Bare with me). There are apparently new parks in which you can be buried, no coffin, no nothing, so that you just compost into the ground. Instead of a grave stone marking your spot, there is one big gravestone for all the people buried there.

[kucloth]

I was just thinking about that the other day... Our natural design was to return to the earth when we die, but being buried in a container designed not to decompose kind of messes up that cycle. Also, graveyards are a pretty inefficeint way to use the increasingly scarce land on the earth. There are a lot of laws that restrict burials without coffins or vaults, so a little research needs to be done before you decide what to do. I think a lot of it is because it would be so much easier for animals to smell and dig up bodies. We used to put concrete blocks over animals for a week or so to keep the coyotes from digging them up.

[SamuraiNinjaGuy]

I am curious, I don't have loved ones die all that often... How much of an impact does it make to provide loved ones with the burial method they desired? I also wouldn't feel very comfortable trying to talk a sickly family member into cremation... It just seems wrong... I try to conserve energy when possible, but this seems a little over the top for me.

[jbird1972]

http://www.thespiritree.com/
I plan on be planted myself with the spirit tree

[higherlife]

what if you just have them dig it by hand, use volunteers or pay extra? I want to feed the worms when I die.