Eco-Friendly Options

Some day, one day, we’re each going to die. When you die, something has to happen with you, your body, your corpse or however you are comfortable referring to the physical aspect of the deceased you. There’s a legal requirement to “dispose” of or “lay to rest” our dead bodies.

If you’re living your life mindful of how your daily activities impact our planet, then you’ll likely be concerned about the ecological impact you make after you die. The two most readily available choices are flame-based cremation and full-body burial. There are other opportunities you may not be aware of within those two choices, and there are a handful of other options in development or available now in some areas. Examples include:

• Green, natural, and conservation burial options are growing around the world.
• Grave reuse, direct-earth and shroud-only burial are available at Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver, Canada.
• Bio-cremation, aka water cremation, green cremation or alkaline hydrolysis has limited availability in parts of Canada and the US but not yet in BC, despite a 2017 official application for changes to provincial law that would clear the way.
• Human composting, aka natural organic reduction is currently being considered in the Washington State Legislature. The related bills passed through the state Senate in February 2019 and are now before the State’s House of Representatives.
• Installations of suspended memorial vessels known as Constellation Parks are in development at Columbia University’s DeathLab.

We thank Willow for providing this information.