Last night's episode of 'Six Feet Under' dealt with a Green funeral.......for those not familiar with this, it is an environmentally-friendly burial with no embalming or sealed coffin, the body is simply wrapped in a shroud and placed in the ground in a nature preserve. This is exactly what I want when I die, so it was good for my husband and I to watch this episode so he could get a better idea of my wishes in case I go before him.

I have done some research on Green funerals, but unfortunately there don't seem to be many eco-friendly burial parks in the U.S. I found them in Florida, Vermont, and South Carolina.......but I live in Maryland. I would have to be flown to one of these places, which would make it kinda hard to get people there for a service before I got funky, lol (sorry for the cryptic humor...couldn't resist).

Does anyone here have any info on other eco-friendly burial parks, or Green funerals in general??

In June when my grandma died and we went through the whole wake/funeral/etc... process, I decided for certain that I..

a) do not want to be embalmed
b) want an unfinished pine box ONLY
c) want to be in the ground within 24 hrs of my death
d) do NOT want an open casket, or anyone to look at my corpse, less identifying the body.

Embalming freaks me out. Caskets freak me out. Who cares if it looks comfy.. YOU'RE DEAD. The whole "gasket" thing that seals the coffin better? Again.. Its not like tupperware! You don't need to burp it and then save it to be fresh for later. Its a dead body! Get it in the ground post-haste!!

But thas just me :)

When I finally kick off I don't want to be buried.. I'd prefare to be buried at sea or cremated.
I like the idea of green burials and I think they should be promoted more!

I think flying a body to a green park would be less environmentally friendly than just doing the cremation locally. So that would have to be considered. How bad is cremation, really?

The idea of a green funeral sounds more appealing than a traditional funeral. But if I had my choice I hope to die in the field.

I would prefer to be cremated over any burial.

I'd just as soon be stuck out for the buzzards to eat, but that's illegal.

I'll go up in smoke, I think it's worthwhile to save as much as land as possible, unless some omnis want to BBQ me.

I'm all for cremation too. And sprinkle my ashes. Don't know how much nutrient value there would be left, but whatever. Gets me back to the earth that much quicker.

I find it strange that I am all for organ donation because "I won't need them anymore anyways" but something about being crawling with worms just does not appeal to me. Yeah I'm a hypocrite.

interesting...but my vote is still for cremation and then sprinkled onto some national park land.

Do we know if cremation is bad for the environment? I know a lot of ash ends up flying up the chimney......

still cremation must be better that embalming/coffins etc...

I'll have to look into green funerals in my area.

I've never heard of a green funeral before. But those make a lot of sense... I wonder, at what point in time did we start putting our dead in coffins before burial?

My only problem with cremation is that it is a waste of energy.

I've never heard of this before, but I think it is great. I've always wanted to be buried and never liked the idea of a coffin. I want nature to just take its natural course with me.

I'd just as soon be stuck out for the buzzards to eat, but that's illegal.
:lol: You changed my mind. I no longer want to be stuffed.

Edit: Can't you be burried on your own property?

:lol: You changed my mind. I no longer want to be stuffed.

Edit: Can't you be burried on your own property?

Yes, I think you can in some areas but you probably need to get a permit. Many families and tiny communities around here have private graveyards, there's one about a half mile from my house.

I don't know if it's total BS, but in Six Feet Under it was said that the whole embalming/casket thing evolved during the Civil War. They needed to get the soldiers back to their loved ones for proper burial, and the industry kind of evolved from there.

In some ancient cultures, they built a high wooden platform and left the body on it for it to decompose naturally. I guess thats the greenest you can get.

I love this new "green" option. Although I'll admit that the idea of stumbling upon or accidently digging up a rotting corpse disturbs me, I'd still be for it. The body decomposes much quicker than most of us probably realize, and being sent directly into the ground to let the worms and other micro-organisms do their thing doesn't sound that awful. Call it being part of "the great circle of life," as Mufasa would say. I also like my Da's (and Ludi's) idea - when he dies, he wants the family to just toss his corpse out into the field by his house for the coyotes and other critters to eat.

My dad's side of the family has a family cemetary, but its in someone backyard. I don't know how they managed to do it but they did and a lot of that side of the family is buried there. I've never heard of green funerals either, but it seems like a nice thing to do. Coffins have never seemed weird to me, but the more I think about it the weirder a bed, basically, for the dead seems. I guess it could be for closure for the family that the loved one is comfortable....maybe for kids that don't know whats going on.
I don't like to think about what I want when I die, but i think i'd like to be cremated and kept somewhere within the family.

"ashes to ashes and dust to dust"

Thanks for making this post about green funerals. I thought cremating was the best for the environment as the ashes can take less land space. If you think about it there are about 6 billion people in the world and 100 years from now most will be dead. Where will the bodies go?

Thanks for making this post about green funerals. I thought cremating was the best for the environment as the ashes can take less land space. If you think about it there are about 6 billion people in the world and 100 years from now most will be dead. Where will the bodies go?

Well, in olden times they just dug up the old graveyards and dumped the remains in a charnel house.

At some grave yards the ashes are kept in a little bin like the post office boxes. If the bodies were put in a house then your loved ones might have difficulties finding your remains when they visit you.

Aw, yay! I was just talking about this option with my mom! I was thinking of how nice it would be for the minerals and elements in my body to go back into the Earth, instead of locking it all up in a box for eternity. :/

Not really better for the environment but when I was reading some of straightdope message board I found a topic about donating your body to science when a person dies and agreed to their body can be used to teach medical students. So this might be able to help people. The body after used would be sewed up and put in a coffin underground.

I'd just as soon be stuck out for the buzzards to eat, but that's illegal.

Have you ever heard of the Towers of Silence?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/science/story/0,12450,817662,00.html