Think outside the casket/urn: 8 alternatives to a traditional burial or cremation

Think outside the box - or at least, the coffin or urn. There are at least eight alternate ways of disposing of the body of a loved one which are more environmentally friendly than a traditional casket burial or cremation. For example:

• Promession, or freeze-drying, which creates a dry powder that can be placed in an urn.
• Green Burial using a biodegradable casket or a shroud instead of embalming and a traditional coffin. Along with this, you might choose to have the body buried in a green cemetery, with woodlands and prairie rather than the traditional tombstones and well-cut grass.
• Bios urns, which enables you to turn the body of a deceased loved one into a tree. 
• Donating the body to medical or forensic science.
• Creating an artificial reef.
• Green embalming, which uses organic compounds for embalming, rather than the chemicals commonly used in embalming.
• The ability to compost the body. This process, being developed by the Urban Death Project, involves a multi-story building with a compost core, complete with ramps where funeral services can take place for the shrouded body. 

So, consider alternatives, keeping in mind the aims of the Urban Death Project:

“Fundamentally alter the way that Western Society thinks about death. The goal is to un-do the over-commercialization and needless distance currently created between ourselves and this inevitable human event”.

Read the full article here:

Eight Effective Ways to Dispose of a Body