Have You Thought About Recycling Your Body?
With the bodies literally pilling up due to the Covid 19 pandemic, it’s the perfect time for us to rethink the way we dispose of bodies. The one thing we know for certain is that we’re all going to die. And, yet, how many of us discuss this eventuality or tell our loved ones what we’d like done with our remains? And, more importantly, how many of us have considered the devastating consequences this decision will have on our planet? Yes, I said, devastating.
In the U.S., there are generally two ways we dispose of a body: burial or cremation. Let’s start with burials. According to the Berkeley Planning Journal, every year, in the U.S. alone, burials use 30 million pounds of hardwood (equivalent to 4 million square acres of forest — enough to build over 90,000 home), 2,700 tons of copper and bronze, 104,272 tons of steel, and 1,636 tons of reinforced concrete. Added to this are the CO2 emissions from cutting down the trees, manufacturing the caskets, digging the graves, transporting the coffins, manufacturing the cement, and the ongoing lawn maintenance of cemetery grounds. To make matters even worse, before putting the bodies in a casket, they’re embalmed. Why? Are you ready for this? Because it allows funeral homes to charge more (usually around $3000) for body preparation and also because many morticians believe (incorrectly) that it protects public health, and they continue to perpetuate this myth. Though not required by law in any state, many funeral homes still insist on the practice. Why is this a big deal? Because embalming is a physically invasive process that annually uses 5.3 million gallons of embalming fluid, which contains a toxic mixture of formaldehyde, glutaraldehyde, methanol, and a whole host of other solvents. When the body decomposes in the buried casket, these toxic fluids leach out, eventually ending up in our soil and groundwater. (It’s worth noting that embalming practices started during the Civil War period, because President Lincoln wanted to ward off decomposition until he could return the union dead to their hometowns.)
What about cremations? They’re a better option, but are still environmentally unsound due to the burning of natural gas, which releases greenhouse gases as well as vaporization and other chemicals that may be present in the body (e.g., mercury from dental fillings, dioxins, furans, etc.,) And for those who choose a memorial service with an open casket prior to cremation, the environmental damage is doubled because the coffin is burned with the body.
Hopefully, I’ve convinced you to reconsider the current archaic means of body disposal. Green burials are a new and emerging business, but here are just a few environmentally friendly options for you to consider.
1. Biodegradable Casket — If you choose a burial, skip embalming (which may involve switching funeral homes), and select a biodegradable casket which will allow for a much quicker break down of your remains.
2. Green Embalming — If you’re worried about decomposition, either because your body will be transported over a long distance, or because your funeral has to be delayed, replace traditional embalming fluid with organic compounds, such as essential oils and resins.
3. Promession — After the removal of dental fillings and artificial devices, your remains are freeze-dried. It results in .04-inch diameter particles of organic material which can then be safely returned to the earth.
4. Bios Urns — These are biodegradable urns that contain your ashes, some soil, and a seed. Your loved ones plant the container, water it and a tree sapling of your or their choosing will sprout from your remains.
5. Burial Pods — This is the same principle as bios urns, except your whole body, arranged in the fetal position, is put into a pod, from which a tree will grow. Imagine, instead of cemeteries we have beautiful forests.
6. Eternal Reefs — Your promession (freeze-dried) remains will be mixed with concrete or set in individual pockets, which is then built into a reef ball and used to develop or restore coral reefs.
7. Donation of a body to medical science — Your remains will aid medical students.
8. Donating a body to forensic science — Your remains will allow forensic investigators to study decomposition processes.
9. Human composting. This is a new idea that is being currently being studied by Katrina Spade’s Urban Death Project. It will allow remains to be turned into nutritive compost very quickly.
Let’s not be as much of a burden to the earth when we’re dead as we were when we were alive. Use the spare time this pandemic has afforded many of us, to do your research, make a plan, discuss it with loved ones, and then record it so everyone involved will be better prepared when the time comes, because it is coming, sooner or later.