For the environmentalist who has everything.
Back-to-Earth burials, low- energy, low-emission cremations, cardboard coffins and back-to-Earth burials and scattering cremated remains in state parks are now all the rage and the market is growing. Bloomberg reports that they are now even introducing non-toxic biodegradable embalming fluid to replace the formaldehyde. Green burials also tend to be cheaper which in this climate might be an added bonus.
Still, this is all very new territory which means it's open to exploitation, says Phil Douma, executive director of the Michigan Funeral Directors Association. "Unfortunately, serious concerns have already been raised about at least one allegedly green cemetery in Michigan that appears at first glance to be nothing more than a means to sell off undesirable land, plot by 'green' plot."
And according to some reports, the push for green funerals is one of the many forces that is throwing the death industry into an existential crisis with natural burials avoiding those expensive embalming processes and concrete burial vaults.
Clearly, the industry might have to adapt. Otherwise in the long run, critics say it might suffer the same fate as the newspaper and music industries. But then, as John Maynard Keynes said, the long run can be misleading because in the long run, we're all dead.
no comment untill now