How will your final undertaking impact the environment? You can make choices in life that will affect the environmental impact you make in death. And those choices have never been more abundant. Funeral consumers today have a variety of options available to them for after-death arrangements.
GOING GREEN is about how we use resources. What happens to our body after death will involve energy, materials, and other resources to a greater or lesser degree.
How to GREEN a conventional funeral and keep costs down If you choose a conventional funeral, there are steps you can take to reduce its impact on the environment, and at the same time lower costs. Consider the following:
You have the right to choose only the funeral goods and services you want.
Forego embalming and choose a closed casket funeral. The funeral home will keep the body refrigerated until the time of the service and burial.
You may also choose Immediate Burial, which means there will be no funeral home service or public visitation in the presence of the body. Some people will also arrange for a graveside service.
Forego a funeral home visitation/viewing and hold a home funeral. Minnesota law allows family/friends to care for and vigil with the body of one who has died for up to 72 hours without embalming. Some form of cooling, such as dry ice, is used to delay decomposition.
Ask your funeral director if he/she is willing to use a non-formaldehyde based embalming fluid.
Choose a casket made of soft wood, if available through the funeral home, or you can purchase a casket. A funeral home is required to accept a casket you purchase on your own, and cannot charge an additional fee.
Environmental impact of the conventional funeral Each year, 22,500 cemeteries across the United States bury approximately:
90,000 tons of steel (caskets)
2,700 tons of copper and bronze (caskets)
30 million board feet of hardwoods (caskets)
827,060 US gallons of embalming fluid (includes formaldehyde)