When it comes to funeral options, traditional burial has been the most popular way for American families for a long time, despite the significant harmful impact it brings to the environment. According to the Green Burial Council, traditional burial involves putting in the ground 17,000 tons of bronze and copper, 64,500 tons of steel, 20 million feet of wood, and 4.3 million gallons of embalming fluids every year,
Among which, the embalming fluids is the most detrimental to the environment. The main ingredient of embalming fluids includes potentially poisonous chemicals like formaldehyde, glutaraldehyde, phenol and many others. Although people commonly believe when something is buried, it disappeared, it is certainly not true. These chemicals slowly infiltrate into the soil and waterways which eventually reaches America's water table.
Luckily traditional burial is graduating being discarded by many American people, mostly due to the expensive cost of embalming and cemetery spots, which can go up to $20,000. According to The National Funeral Directors Association, in 2018, the cremation rate reached 53.5%, and it is predicted that by 2035, cremation rate will reach 80%.
Cremation as an alternative of traditional burial is more affordable, and it is commonly marketed as much more environmental-friendly than burial. However, does it really qualify as a sustainable and responsible way of handling our bodies? Statistics show disappointing results. The National Geographic writer Beck Little writes:
...while it’s true that cremation is less harmful than pumping a body full of formaldehyde and burying it on top of concrete, there are still environmental effects to consider. Cremation requires a lot of fuel, and it results in millions of tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year.
To be precise, Matthews Environmental Solutions, a company that focuses on combustion technology, estimates that cremation in the U.S, produces about 360,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emission every year. Exactly how much carbon dioxide emission is that? Based on the information provided by Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator, 360,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide is equivalent to the amount of carbon sequestered by 5.95 million tree seedlings grown for 10 years.
Moreover, the cremated ashes have been assumed eco-friendly, thus many people scatter the ashes to the ground. While some ingredients in human ashes contain nutrients plants need, it also contains much sodium and pH level, which can be poisonous when placed near trees and in the ground.
A company called Let Your Love Grow offers a more friendly solution to the potentially poisonous, cremated ashes. It provides service of lowering the toxic sodium and pH level in human ashes by balancing out the ashes and soil to bring out the nutrient in the cremated ashes. Ashes go into Let Your Love Grow, and comes out as nutritious soil that can be used in the backyard garden.
While turning ashes into soil is a good solution for scattering ashes, it doesn't replace burial and cremation, which are the major causes of environmental problems in the process. Luckily, in 2020, a Seattle, Washington located company called Recompose emerged along with a perfectly sustainable alternative for burial and cremation.
"Become soil when you die" is written on Recompose's main page. Recompose gently transforms the human body into soil using a process called "natural organic reduction". The process is similar to composting food waste into fertilizer. The composted soil can be used to regenerate the earth.
Saving the environment and creating an eco-friendly process for people's last journal is the biggest motivation and goal of Recompose. According to Recompose, every year, 1 million acres of land is taken up by cemeteries, and 4 million acres of forest is consumed to make caskets. One year of cremation in North America consumes enough fossil fuel to drive a car halfway to the sun.
There are five phases in composting a human remains into soil:
Phrase one involves the beneficial microbes that naturally take place on our bodies and nature.
In phase two, the body is put into a cradle that's surrounded by straw, wood chips, and alfalfa; the cradle will be pushed into a specially made Recompose vessel and the body will be covered by more plants.
In phase three, the plants and the body stay in the vessel for 30 days. The microbes break down the body to molecular level, including bones, which result in the formation of nutritious soil.
In phase four, each body produces approximately 1 cubic yard soil. The soil created will be removed from the vessel and set aside to cure, which takes 2-4 weeks.
In phase five, the soil can be used to restore forest, sequester carbon, and enrich conservative lands and gardens.
Compared to cremation and traditional burial, it is estimated that 0.84 to 1.4 metric tons of carbon dioxide will be prevented every time a human remains goes through the natural organic reduction process over burial and cremation. After the soil is created, Recompose offers the chance to donate the soil to Bells Mountain, a legally protected 700-acre conservation forest located in southern Washington.
Recompose's motto:
Death is profound, momentous, and beyond our understanding. With an approach that is as practical as it is meaningful, recompose connects the end of life to the naturalworld.
Although currently "natural organic reduction" as a funeral option is only legal in Washington, the legalization is being processed in California, Oregon, Colorado and other states. Economic and environmental reasons aside, human composting is a natural and humane way of leaving the world. Compared to leaving behind tons of harmful emissions and sacrificing tons of trees, composting allows humans to leave responsibility, truly return to ashes, and contribute to the world one last time.
Matthews environmental solutions For CREMATION, INCINERATION. (n.d.). Retrieved March 22, 2021, from https://matthewsenvironmentalsolutions.com/us/
Marsden-Ille, S. (2021, March 18). What is the 2018 cremation rate in the us? And How is this affecting the DEATH INDUSTRY. Retrieved March 22, 2021, from https://www.us-funerals.com/2018-us-cremation-rate/#.YFgT_UhKjGJ
Welcome. (n.d.). Retrieved March 22, 2021, from https://www.greenburialcouncil.org/
Ecological death care. (2021, February 11). Retrieved March 22, 2021, from https://recompose.life/
A living memorial. (n.d.). Retrieved March 22, 2021, from https://letyourlovegrow.com/
Welcome. (n.d.). Retrieved March 22, 2021, from https://www.greenburialcouncil.org/
Greenhouse gas equivalencies calculator. (2018, October 15). Retrieved March 22, 2021, from https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gas-equivalencies-calculator
This is an interesting post and thanks for sharing! I remember that I watched a movie discussing about after death. In the movie, people can enter the gap between life and death by pushing themselves to the edge close to the death. One Chinese saying talks about when a person about to die, he or she will recall all the memories in their lives.
While I recognize the importance of having a specific place one can visit to remember their deceased loved ones, I think traditional cemeteries are a ridiculous waste of space. Although I hear it’s a lucrative industry, I wouldn't be surprised if we eventually phase them out and even begin developing on top of them. As religious demographics shift rapidly in our society, I believe the methods you discuss will grow only in popularity. Personally, I would love to become a tree, especially a giant redwood. I wonder if some type of instant vaporization (after organ donation) will be invented one day, that’d definitely be an interesting route.
I really enjoyed reading this post. It opened my eyes to a whole new way of thinking about what happens to my remains after death. This idea is really cool because it not only focuses on using our remains in a positive way, its also environmentally friendly. To me the idea created by Recompose and being an organ donor are probably the most selfless things to do with your remains.It's a really cool sentiment to think that we've figured out how to let someones death bring about more life.
Junru, its funny that you chose to write about this topic since I was just talking with a friend about it. I asked if he'd rather be buried or cremated and he said cremated just cause he didn't like the sound of having bugs crawling inside of his body after he died. While he clearly didn't know it, it turns out he was also making the environmentally friendly decision. While I'd never considered it, it should have been obvious that burning up corpses requires gas or some fuel. Considering these factors, I can see why by 2035 80% of people would favor being cremated.
Junru, great post with such an interesting topic. Even though death is something people want to avoid in a conversation, it is important to talk about our bodies after leaving this earth and being thoughtful about our decisions. I have never heard of composting human remains into soil, but I think it is a fascinating concept. I think people should discuss this more because it is a double win for the environment. It is great you are raising awareness about the environmental problems associated with burials and the cremation process. Many people often associated environmental issues with the big players (factories, airplanes, etc.) that we overlook more minor problems that we can easily fix.