Environmental Funeral

Cardinal Richelieu

I was watching Euro News and they were discussing some of the ways to have an environment friendly funeral such as cardboard and wicker coffins. They also covered a chemical process whereby your flesh can be liquedfied and safely disposed of down the drain and the bones then cremated. Any environmental funerals I seen before involved getting buried under a tree in a wicker basket but are they really that environmental. It raised a few questions:

• What is the carbon foot print of a typical funeral like?
• What are the environmental funeral alternatives available in Ireland?
• Does anyone have that human liquedfied technology in Ireland?
• Are these new technology body disposal methods legal in Ireland?

Edit: Found a link http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2011/08/green-machine-get-your-body-li.html

zagmund

Define "environmental" in this context.

Outside of the human world creatures fall down, die and are either eaten or decompose to one degree or another. This is at least natural - whether it fits into a specific definition of environmental is a different issue altogether.

I would be interested in alternative burial regulations, but I can't see mechanised liquefaction being more environmental (per my own definition) than just being put in a hole in the ground without a coffin, without any form of preservation.

z

Maldesu

I'd take a Sky burial before having parts of myself liquidised and poured down a drain.

Oldtree

Too tired to read all this at the mo but looks like they are talking about it here now:

http://debates.oireachtas.ie/dail/2012/04/20/00010.asp

I dont want to be embalmed and fancy a cremation and ashes spred at a favorite place.