How to Become a Tree When You Die
Turning your loved one’s cremated ashes into a tree keeps them alive in nature forever. Planting a tree seed or seedling alongside a family member’s ashes and watching it grow can be one of the most rewarding and meaningful experiences in your life. But as romantic as the idea seems, is ...
Continue ReadingThe Fight for the Right to Be Cremated by Water
By Emily Atkin | June 14, 2018 for The New Republic "Aquamation," a greener form of body disposal, is gaining acceptance in America. But some powerful groups are fighting to stop it. Samantha Sieber’s grandfather had a traditional American burial. His body was embalmed, put in a metal casket, and laid ...
Continue ReadingA New Way to Dispose of Corpses - With Chemistry!
Alkaline hydrolysis is a clean, green method for dissolving a body into its chemical building blocks; the runny remains just wash down the drain. BY HAYLEY CAMPBELL for WIRED THE RESOMATOR STANDS monolithic in the corner of a room on the ground floor of a building at UCLA. It’s as sterile as a ...
Continue ReadingVermont Green Burial Advocate Dies, Settles for Cremation
BY JOEL BANNER BAIRD FOR THE FREE PRESS | March 12, 2018 In his final months, Jack Griffin of Burlington, VT lobbied hard for an earth-friendly green burial — but he ran out of time. Jack Griffin settled for ashes two weeks before he died last month. His public request for a green burial ...
Continue ReadingThinking About Having a ‘Green’ Funeral? Here’s What to Know
By SONYA VATOMSKY for NY TIMES | MARCH 22, 2018 A typical American funeral usually involves a few hallmarks we’ve come to expect: an expensive coffin, lots of flowers, an embalming for the deceased and a number of other add-ons. But how necessary are those embellishments? Enter the “green burial.” The ...
Continue ReadingGrieving Santa Rosa Family Reclaims Old Ways, Brings Son’s Body Home to Say Good-bye
MEG MCCONAHEY FOR THE PRESS DEMOCRAT | March 9, 2018 When Carl Hamilton got the news that every parent dreads, his fatherly instinct kicked in. His son Chris was lying alone at the Sonoma County Coroner’s Office, the victim of a middle-of-the-night car crash. Against all modern convention, Hamilton decided he ...
Continue ReadingDon't Burn Your Body When You're Dead: Dissolving Yourself Is Much More Eco-Friendly
Liquifying a body is cleaner and greener than traditional burials and cremation. By Robin Scher / AlterNet January 25, 2018, 8:30 PM GMT There are many ways to embark on the journey to the great beyond. One popular custom is the coffin burial. Or rather it was, until cemeteries began running out of ground space. And conventional burials ...
Continue ReadingBurial Practices That Nourish the Earth
In this TedMed Talk by Caitlin Doughty (Ask a Mortician), she dives into greener death practices that nourish our earth. Practices like composting of the dead and natural burials on conservational burial grounds. You will also learn about the affects of cremation, how green it is, and America's current death-care ...
Continue ReadingNFDA Consumer Survey: Funeral Planning Not a Priority for Americans
The National Funeral Directors Association’s 2017 Consumer Awareness and Preferences Study Reveals Inconsistency in Funeral Planning Practices For the fifth consecutive year, the National Funeral Directors Association’s (NFDA) annual Consumer Awareness and Preferences Study indicates that consumers acknowledge the importance of preplanning their own funeral, but fail to do so in practice. This ...
Continue ReadingWe’ve mastered weddings—but the funeral needs a lot of work
By Vanessa Quirk for Quartz April 4, 2017 The $20-billion-dollar death industry is ripe for disruption—and not of the zombie kind. A typical funeral service today is remarkably similar to one from 50 years ago. A funeral home will display the embalmed body, perhaps in an open casket, while a ...
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