The Green Hereafter

How to leave an environmentally friendly corpse.

Here’s a lovely article that is about what we can do to be eco-friendly even after we have passed on.

green team

By Nina Shen Rastogi, SLATE

Posted Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2009

I try to be as eco-conscious as possible when it comes to managing my household waste. But lately I’ve been worrying about what to do when I become waste. What’s the greenest thing I can do with my remains when I shuffle off this mortal coil?

Traditional burials are highly resource-intensive. There are coffins to manufacture and ship—sometimes across very long distances, if you choose an exotic wood like mahogany—and concrete vaults to build. (Many cemeteries require coffins to be placed within bunkerlike structures to prevent their neatly manicured grounds from collapsing.) In a Slate article from 2006, the founder of the Green Burial Council estimated that Americans bury more metal each year than was used to make the Golden Gate Bridge and enough concrete to build a two-lane highway from New York to Detroit.

Many people who choose cremation do so because it seems like the tidier choice: less muss, less fuss. If you have your ashes scattered or kept in an urn, you won’t be taking up valuable land space. Going without a gravesite also means you cut out the emissions and fuel consumption associated with regular visits from mourners.

But crematories don’t run on lollipops and puppy dog tails—most use a combination of natural gas and electricity to incinerate their occupants. One leading manufacturer told the Green Lantern that a typical machine requires about 2,000 cubic feet of natural gas and 4 kilowatt-hours of electricity per body. That means the average cremation produces about 250 pounds of CO₂ equivalent, or about as much as a typical American home generates in six days.

(for the full article)

http://www.slate.com/id/2211395/