I notice it’s never compared to a traditional burial which is better for the environment.
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Concrete? Wood and a tiny bit of metal is fine in the earth.
Cardboard? Our graveyard here uses the fancy coffins only for the ceremony and the burial itself is done in what amounts to a special cardboard box that helps to quickly decompose the body in the ground.
Sounds a lot better for the environment. I’m surprised the Americans use cement.
In the US, they line the burial vault with concrete. It is the embalming fluids that are really hard on the environment.
Where I live, the weather is very dry, yet cemeteries have lush green grass like golf courses. They are heavily watered all summer long.
I think in a rural area where land is plentiful, burial is not a big concern. In an urbanized area, a dead body would be competing for housing, park, or business space, and consuming resources all the while.
The coffins are placed in concrete outer boxes, because a “lease” for a grave goes for 25-100 years. Then they take the whole thing out and another coffin takes it’s place. The concrete protects the coffin so that it can later be moved.
Whatever kind of process that can decompose me in the most sustainable way, I’m all for it. No need to put on a show, only to dump my body somewhere else in 50 years when everyone has forgotten about it.
I’m concerned about efficient land use in traditional burials. Where I live you will often see cemeteries in the middle of the town with graves that are so old that no living relatives will ever visit – anybody who knew the deceased has long passed as well.
We don’t need to preserve bodies, we need to dispose of them and let the living use the land instead. E.g. build proper parks with amenities for the living instead of hotels for the dead.
If people buy land it isn’t much different to anyone holding land for generations.
I think that’s because burial uses space. Space is expensive. And we insist on burying people lying down instead of upright.
Melting people and flushing them down the toilet may be a way to solve overcrowding. I take issue with it being marketed as the eco option.
i dont want to spend the rest of eternity standing up. not wth my knees.
Better only if no embalming.
“Boil in the bag. Like sous-vide,” explains one mourner to another. “You get flushed. Down the drain. Out to sea. The end.”
