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Modern and green funeral industry

green funeral industry

We all keep hearing about several environmental issues, and while they are ever increasing in concern, it is heartening to know efforts are being made in every possible direction to mitigate these effects. Human beings contribute to environmental problems even after they die, and the funeral parlors are now working to ensure humans have a smaller carbon footprint even in death.

Environmental impact of death

Not just the living but the dead also have a carbon footprint. This is owing to the funeral practices people across the globe have been following since ages. The standard cremation and burial practices people follow takes a lot of energy and resources. So much of wood goes into the funeral pyre, and the air pollution it contributes to is a sad thing. On the other hand, the burial of dead bodies is responsible for the pollution underground.

Considering a typical American funeral, it takes a coffin made of wood or metal, a concrete vault, embalming, and a large stone or marble monument. All this makes a funeral resource intensive; every year so much of wood, metal, stone goes waste underground. Gallons of toxic embalming fluid that goes with the dead underground pollutes water and wildlife.

Cemeteries occupy large tracts of land that otherwise could be used for some other fruitful purpose, and here comes cremation, which solves the problem of land acquisition. It solves one problem but comes with other major troubles. It takes a large amount of fossil fuel, and electricity for electric cremations, which release harmful chemicals and CO2 in the atmosphere. These are the facts that instigated people to rethink the funeral ways, eventually coming up with an alternative known as green funeral.

Awakening of the funeral industry

Funeral practice used to be a hush-hush affair, as in nobody likes to talk of them or make a big issue out of it. However, in recent years owing to the rising environmental concerns and environmental awareness, even funeral practices got a lot of attention. Its negative environmental impact came into limelight, and consequently green funerals came into being.

Environmentally friendly funerals

The burgeoning green funeral industry makes it possible for a dead person to depart the world in an eco-friendly way. These modern and eco-friendly ways reduce the resource consumption and contribution to pollution of funeral services. These modern services enable the family and the loved ones of the departed person to do the final rights without any guilt of harming the environment in any way.

A Green Burial

The green burial or natural burial you call it, ensures that the burial site remains natural. No use of embalming fluids, concrete vaults, or fancy metal or wood coffins, as they leave a negative impact underground and at the burial site. In a green burial, burial is done in biodegradable coffins such as bamboo coffins, or simply a body is simply wrapped in a shroud or the departed soul’s favorite blanket. You plant flowers, trees, and shrubs at the site, unlike conventional burial that covers all the space.

A Green Cremation

Image Source : Bbci.Co.Uk

A gentle and eco-friendly alternative to a flame-based cremation is what we call as the green cremation. It dissolves your loved one’s body without leaving a carbon footprint, which is in sheer contrast to a conventional cremation that releases CO2 and other harmful gases in the atmosphere. Dead body is immersed in a mixture or water and potassium hydroxide, which reduces the body into bone ash. The family can take away the ashes of their loved one.

A green funeral enables people to depart their loved ones in a clean and eco-friendly way.

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