Wednesday, May 30

Eco-burial, an idea whose time has come

My uncle pointed this out to me; he and a friend are trying to get something like this started in Florida. The idea is to create cemetaries where those who have passed can be buried in a natural setting, probably sans headstone, without the ten thousand dollar lead-lined casket (let this be as legal a notice as an anonymous blogger can leave--I wanna be cremated).

It's a great idea. Green Options has more info, and there's an example of same run by some monks in Georgia here.

And of course, before you are buried with nature you hopefully will live a good life and die with dignity. You've probably all signed the petition already, but of course the First Freedom First people are all about death with dignity.

13 comments:

  1. ultimately i'd prefer a tibetan sky burial (chopped up and fed to vultures). whatever it takes so that i'm not buried alive. i'm okay with cannibalism too. if i can't have a green funeral, maybe i can have a soylent green funeral. bring chips.

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  2. Ha! I like that, Manilla Ryce.

    A few more years of a Republican led Homeland Security, and I have a feeling they will be filling more than a few Potters' Fields full of the unmarked graves of dissidents of different countries. (Probably including our own.) They'll be green, but unknowingly!

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  3. Anonymous10:04 AM

    I wanted to be cremated until I started to read about green alternatives.

    As a nature boy, the idea of my body decomposing as food for trees and bugs appeals to me.

    OG

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  4. i'm going the cremation route.

    nice and warm. ; )

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  5. Cremation. Spread the ashes in a garden someplace. Good compost.

    Play some Coltrane while you're at it. That's all I ask.

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  6. and the doors. "light my fire" ; )

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  7. I'm thinking about donating my body and associated parts - and I've read the book Cadaver and know my head might end up as a test subject for practice botox injections, but hey, people gotta learn somewhere. I'll just be doing my part to keep Laura and the twins looking nice and fresh for their Presidential runs in 2108.

    As a side note...as you might expect, there's a snag in this method in many states. The funeral lobby and the local reps may have gotten together to pass legislation requiring the lead lined box (and a generous donation to the reps' campaign fund).

    You might want to check that out before making any permanent plans.

    If it turns out to be true, I hear there's a cryo box open right next to Ted Williams's disembodied head.

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  8. Anonymous10:16 PM

    We had our 13 year old dog creamated so that we could spread his ashes on his favorite walking trail in the mountains.

    The ash was more like hard clumps and as a farmer I can tell you I would never put that into one of my fields.

    Besides creamation adds to global warming, so do you want your last carbon footprint to harmful.

    With Eco-Bury there is no embalming fulid, they do keep you on ice before they dump you in the ground.

    I'm going Old School, rot and feed the earth.

    OG

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  9. Hhm. I'm thinking of "The Painted Veil." Cholera. Decomposing bodies contaminating the water. I'm going to believe that the folks at Green Options have thought of that though...

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  10. My ideal situation would be to donate any organs that still work to needy recipients, the rest to medical science, the skin to burn victims, all the meat for animal feed, and have the bones ground up to make calcium supplements for pet iguanas. Then there's nothing left to need burial.

    In reference to poobah's caveat, I do believe that Alabama law prohibits transporting an unembalmed body out of state, so a green cemetery in Florida isn't of much use to us unless we can arrange to die out of state.

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  11. Anonymous4:58 PM

    As my understanding is that un-embalmed, non-lead-lined, un-concreted burials are prohibited in most states (which, how do I put this politely, sucks!) here's the plan:

    Sneak out of The Home with nothin' but my jonnie and a small blade, meet a pre-arranged ride to the distant hills and head as far off-road as my feeble old frame will take me, then end it without additives (don't wanna pizen the carnivores, you know) or fuss. Hopefully I'll be of some use to the scavengers before some spoil-sport finds what's left of me.

    The thought of not returning to nature is unacceptable to me.

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  12. Anonymous5:07 PM

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  13. Anonymous2:15 PM

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