Burial, cremation,

Somehow started thread without finishing subject--meant to add towers of silence, aquamation, etc...

I've been cleaning up some relatives' grave sites the last couple years, and while the two cemeteries are quiet, contemplative places, it doesn't take many generations before individual graves fall into disrepair. The land, however, can never be repurposed unless bodies are moved. One cemetery has section for 19th Irish victims of some plague or another moved from a downtown site and one for members of a local convent: open areas each with a single monument. I think the nuns (but not the poor Irish) also have small footstones with their names, as does a brother of mine in the baby section who died soon after birth, poor thing.

Personally think I'd prefer cremation or, better, green burial in a park or wild area? Maybe a bench along a trail or by a pond with everybody's names on it? A tree with a small plaque? Re aquamation below, I remember that for commercial fishermen working the trawlers in Lake Erie, pulling up a long waterlogged body was a pretty traumatic experience. Used something similar to aquamation to clean up a carp skeleton to reassemble for an ichthyology class. Not the same, I know, but think I'll pass on aquamation!

The Fight for the Right to Be Cremated by Water
Emily Atkin | June 14, 2018

"Aquamation," a greener form of body disposal, is gaining acceptance in America. But some powerful groups are fighting to stop it.

...More than four million gallons of toxic embalming fluids and 20 million feet of wood are put in the ground in the U.S. every year, while a single cremation emits as much carbon dioxide as a 1,000-mile car trip. Thus, the rise in America of “green burials,” where bodies are wrapped in biodegradable material and not embalmed.

Sieber is a part of this trend, but she doesn’t want a green burial. When she dies, she told me, she wants her body to be dunked in a high-pressure chamber filled with water and lye. That water will be heated to anywhere from 200 to 300 degrees, and in six to twelve hours her flesh, blood, and muscle will dissolve. When the water is drained, all that will remain in the tank are her bones and dental fillings. If her family desires, they can have her remains crushed into ash, to be displayed or buried or scattered...

...Only 15 states allow alkaline hydrolysis for human remains...Casket-makers and the Catholic Church are working to make sure it stays that way...

https://newrepublic.com/article/148997/fight-right-cremated-water-rise-alkaline-...

>1 margd: The land, however, can never be repurposed unless bodies are moved

As more and more land is covered with concrete and tarmac, isn't it a good thing that this land can never be repurposed and will remain green and peaceful, if a little untidy? I think of many little cemeteries (and some big ones) which I know in London, which are really like parks, for which London is also well known. They are good habitats for flora and fauna, and nice peaceful places to walk.

Mind you, I don't disagree with the broad thrust of your post. In urban settings with dense populations there is a shortage of land for new burials.

I think it's the decaying infrastructure + mowing + the prospect of many more such cemeteries that bothers me. I'd prefer that new cemeteries become parks and green spaces with much less infrastructure: park benches, plaques on trees. Green burials plus cremains scattered as in churches' gardens, not sealed up in granite walls.

I like to read* the humble, old headstones, but they tumble over and are piled in place while mowing continues. We don't need more. Lichen and mold obscure inscriptions of headstones still standing. Caskets cave leaving shallow depressions, and still the mowing continues. I see that foot stones such as my baby brother's will eventually sink and be covered with grass, so perhaps a better option for eternity?

A g'g'(g'?)grandmother's body was stolen from a mausoleum where it awaited burial in spring. (In old days med students secured their own subjects for anatomy lab...she was from a locally prominent family, but like death, medical students of the day spared no one!) That old stone building still stands, though no inscription to mark her last adventure...

Only fauna in one such cemetery seems to be squirrels... Thinking I'll be the last to regularly visit some family graves, I planted some tiny spring bulbs (Snow Glories, Siberian Squills) hoping that they'd survive the mowing to naturalize as they have in my lawn. But it looks like the squirrels got 'em after one flowering... Maybe that's appropriate as one grandmother in life kept a feeder for the squirrels, naming them all "Peet-y".

Charitable contributions are probably best way to honor the dead anyway...

Apparently I have a copy of poet-mortician Thomas Lynch's The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade, a National Book Award finalist, in my TBR pile--should dig it out--so to speak! ;-)

* One I remember requests a "Prayer as you Pass". How could one refuse?!

Historic DC cemetery doubles as pollution-absorbing sponge
It's not every day green infrastructure gets a priest's blessing.
Matt Hickman | June 24, 2018

Washington D.C.'s Mount Olivet Cemetery, one of the first racially integrated burial grounds in the city. Spread out over 85 tranquil acres, Mount Olivet was established in 1858 as a capital-area riff on Mount Auburn Cemetery, the influential cemetery-cum-arboretum outside of Boston that was the first cemetery in America to more closely resemble an immaculately landscaped park than a dour church-adjacent graveyard. Championing outdoor recreation and inclusionary interments from the get-go, Mount Olivet is home to an eclectic mix of eternal residents: ambassadors, justices, senators, postmasters general and Lincoln assassination conspirators.

...By revamping sections of the 85-acre property to better absorb polluted rainwater that would otherwise flow from its paved roads and walkways into a nearby tributary of the Anacostia River and, eventually, the bay, this ambitious — but non-disruptive — green infrastructure project essentially transforms Mount Olivet Cemetery into a sponge. And a sacred sponge at that.

...Infrequently used access roads were narrowed or replaced altogether with grass, trees, flower beds, rain gardens and bio-retention cells specifically designed to capture and filter polluted runoff. In addition to slowing and scrubbing stormwater before it enters local waterways, the addition of these natural features provide much-needed new habitat to urban wildlife.

The Nature Conservancy is also working alongside the archdiocese to create a stormwater-filtering commemorative garden that honors enslaved Americans who were interred at Mount Olivet Cemetery. "The garden's design will provide reflective spaces for people and habitat for pollinators, using the power of nature to connect people with history," writes Tercek. "The garden will also host community educational events to share the story of those who were enslaved, disenfranchised, and denied the opportunity to have grave markers."

...Mount Olivet is a "sunset" cemetery, which means it is nearing full capacity and will soon halt new interments. While this could spell bad news for future generations who might want to secure a spot in the historic burial grounds, it's good news from a conservation standpoint, particularly as it pertains to the reduction of impervious surfaces. Essentially, this means that no part of the cemetery could potentially be sold to developers who, in turn, might turn the verdant landscape into, for example, a parking lot. The whole property is sanctified, off-limits forever and always.

...The stormwater retention initiative is also financially advantageous to the Catholic Church — the archdiocese can now reduce its annual runoff bills (4%) simply because there are fewer impervious surfaces.

...The project has also enabled the cemetery to generate credits through the DOEE's stormwater retention credit (SRC) program, which, in part, can be sold as a new revenue stream. It's this revenue stream — not money taken from archdiocese coffers — that will pay for the green infrastructure overhaul at Mount Olivet. ...

https://www.mnn.com/green-tech/research-innovations/blogs/historic-dc-cemetery-d...

The gentrification of death: in New York eternal rest will soon be a luxury (Guardian)

Planting some spring bulbs for a great grandmother, I saw four turkeys crossing toward grave of Sir John A MacDonald. (Canada's first Prime Minister).

I throw food scraps into compost bin, but takes longer than 30 days to break down!
Currently there's a compostable coffee cup lid in there that looks SO out of place--and perfectly intact after 30 days... :(

Could ‘Human Composting’ Mean a Better, Greener Death?
Hallie Golden | Jan 14, 2019

...human composting...turns the body into nutrient-rich soil naturally in about 30 days

In the process that Recompose has devised, the body is placed in a vessel with wood chips, alfalfa, and straw, which work to decompose the body. The company co-sponsored a recent trial at Washington State University that determined recomposition is safe and effective, and Spade and her team say it uses only one-eighth the energy of cremation...

EDIT (thx 2wonderY): https://www.citylab.com/environment/2019/01/human-composting-washington-katrina-...

>7 margd: Interesting! But please check the link you posted.

Found their website. Here is the FAQ page:

https://www.recompose.life/faq

More info than anyone wants, I'm sure:

There are body farms at some universities where students study human decomposition as training for later forensics work.

At one U (Illinois?), they buried a (rhinoceros?) that died at a local zoo. Every year the students uncover it, and it's astonishing to me how long it persists in cool (anaerobic?) conditions of a grave. (I think intent is to better understand palaeontologists' finds.)

Sounds like a niche for The Nature Conservancy?

Could Trees Be the New Gravestones?
Nellie Bowles | June 12, 2019

...in a forest south of Silicon Valley, a new start-up...called Better Place Forests...trying to make a better graveyard.

...Sandy Gibson, the chief executive of Better Place...is buying forests, arranging conservation easements intended to prevent the land from ever being developed, and then selling people the right to have their cremated remains mixed with fertilizer and fed to a particular tree.

The Better Place team is this month opening a forest in Point Arena, a bit south of Mendocino; preselling trees at a second California location, in Santa Cruz; and developing four more spots around the country. They have a few dozen remains in the soil already, and Mr. Gibson says they have sold thousands of trees to the future dead. Most of the customers are “pre-need” — middle-aged and healthy, possibly decades ahead of finding themselves in the roots.

Better Place Forests has raised $12 million in venture capital funding....

There is a certain risk to being buried in a start-up forest. When the tree dies, Better Place says it will plant a new one at that same spot. But a redwood can live 700 years, and almost all start-ups in Silicon Valley fail, so it requires a certain amount of faith that someone will be there to install a new sapling.

Still, Mr. Gibson said most customers, especially those based in the Bay Area, like the idea of being part of a start-up even after life. The first few people to buy trees were called founders.

“You’re part of this forest, but you're also part of creating this forest,” said Mr. Gibson, a tall man who speaks slowly and carefully, as though he is giving bad news gently. “People love that.”

Customers come to claim a tree for perpetuity. This now costs between $3,000 (for those who want to be mixed into the earth at the base of a small young tree or a less desirable species of tree) and upward of $30,000 (for those who wish to reside forever by an old redwood). For those who don’t mind spending eternity with strangers, there is also an entry-level price of $970 to enter the soil of a community tree. (Cremation is not included.)

A steward then installs a small round plaque in the earth like a gravestone.

When the ashes come, the team at Better Place digs a three-foot by two-foot trench at the roots of the tree. Then, at a long table, the team mixes the person’s cremated remains with soil and water, sometimes adding other elements to offset the naturally highly alkaline and sodium-rich qualities of bone ash. It’s important the soil stay moist; bacteria will be what breaks down the remains.

Because the forest is not a cemetery, rules are much looser.

...For an extra fee, customers can have a digital memorial video made. Walking through the forest, visitors will be able to scan a placard and watch a 12-minute digital portrait of the deceased talking straight to camera about his or her life. Some will allow their videos to be viewed by anyone walking through the forest, others will opt only for family members.

As cities are running out of room to bury the dead, the cost of funerals and caskets has increased more than twice as fast as prices for all commodities. In the Bay Area, a traditional funeral and plot burial often costs $15,000 to $20,000. The majority of Americans are now choosing to be cremated.

“The death services market is very big — $20 billion a year — and customer approval is low,” said Jon Callaghan, a partner at True Ventures, an investor in Better Places. “The product is broken.”

...Around 75 million Americans will reach the life expectancy age of 78 between 2024 and 2042, Better Place suggests. The company’s pitch is that tree burial is good for the environment, the location is more beautiful than a traditional graveyard — and it’s cheaper as well.

Ms. Pfund also sees these forests as a way to monetize conservation. Actively managing a forest is expensive, so much so that financially strained state park systems are having to turn down gifts of land. Conservation easements, an agreement between an organization and the government to preserve land, have become more popular as a solution.

...John O’Conner, who runs Menlo Park Funerals, said more than 90 percent of his clients opt for cremation.

“Most of my people scatter on their own,” Mr. O’Conner said. “They just go at night, scatter grandma, have a cup of champagne, and every day they drive by that park they know grandma is there. Why would they pay $20,000 to go to a memorial grove when they can scatter at any little park they want to for free?”

That act is, technically, illegal.

“Don’t ask, don’t tell,” Mr. O’Conner said. He said he knew of a few golf courses in the region that had to put up signs imploring people not to scatter guest remains there.

To claim a tree, customers walk through the forest and find one that speaks to them. The Better Place brochure also guides them: Coastal redwoods are “soaring and ancient,” tan oaks are “quirky and giving,” while a Douglas fir is “stately and reverent.”

...When a customer chooses her tree..., she cuts the ribbon off in what Better Place calls the ribbon ceremony...

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/nbc-announces-lineup-democrats-ea...

How this Ontario cemetery is going green
By David Rockne Corrigan - Published on June 14, 2019

In the green-burial section of Glenwood Cemetery, in Picton, there’s no steel, no concrete, and no formaldehyde — just bodies, sometimes blankets, and earth

...Glenwood (Picton, Ontario) and...the other (Green Burial Society of Canada) GBSC-certified Ontario cemetery — Willow’s Rest, in Niagara Falls — adher(e) to the organization’s five principles: no embalming; direct earth burial (no concrete vaults or liners, though simple biodegradable caskets or coffins are acceptable); ecological restoration and conservation (planting native trees and wildflowers); communal memorialization (at Glenwood, instead of individual graves, one boulder will commemorate all the various tenants); and optimized land use (that is, the number of graves per hectare should be equal to or greater than that of a traditional cemetery).

The option isn’t cheaper than the traditional method: both go for $1,200, minimum.

(GM Helma Oonk) notes that the trend is not actually new: before the commercialization of cemeteries in the 19th century, she says, burials were done without embalming or fancy caskets. Traditional Jewish and Muslim burials could also be considered green, as they don’t involve cremation or embalming.

In Canada, a typical cemetery buries about 4,500 litres of formaldehyde-based embalming fluid, 97 tonnes of steel, and 2,000 tonnes of concrete for every 0.4 hectares of space. A standard cremation releases about 400 kilograms of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and uses as much energy as an 800-kilometre car trip.

Richardson, who sits on the GBSC board, says green burials offer more than just environmental benefits. “Cemeteries require multiple lawnmowers, multiple staff, maintaining gardens. Whereas a green-burial section, while it still requires work and maintenance, it’s a natural space. Weeds are a part of life. Broken branches are a part of life.”

Such burials, however, aren’t permitted everywhere...

In February, when 36-year-old Kyle Moore, a resident of Algonquin Highlands, in Haliburton County, died of complications from brain cancer, his father, Terry, tried to arrange for an ecologically friendly burial...But, due to local bylaws, there was no green alternative: cemeteries in Haliburton County, like those in many other places in Ontario, are not permitted to offer winter burials. To bury Kyle in the county, the Moores would’ve had to wait until spring, which they did; his body was embalmed with a formaldehyde-based fluid in February and buried on May 10....Moore is now lobbying the county to review its cemetery bylaws and identify — and eventually eliminate — obstacles for green burial, starting with the no-winter-burial rule. “We’re trying to create a green-burial option year-round so that other families don’t have to go through this,” he says. “It was an agonizing process. Embalming Kyle, knowing it wouldn’t be his first choice. Knowing we had to store his body until the spring.” So far, Moore has raised more than $4,000 for the newly created Kyle Moore Memorial Green Burial Initiative, which aims either to establish a green-burial section in an existing cemetery in Haliburton County or to establish, with the help of charitable landowners, a new green cemetery and conservation area.

...63-year-old Kathy Marchen...says the green-burial section of Glenwood reminds her of the forest she used to play in as a child. “...she visited ( Glenwood’s) green-burial section and knew right away that she’d found her next home.

“It just seemed right,” she says. “The wildflowers, the trees. Right when I got there, two little foxes ran by, and I thought, This is perfect.”

https://www.tvo.org/article/how-this-ontario-cemetery-is-going-green

>10 margd:: “Most of my people scatter on their own,” Mr. O’Conner said. “They just go at night, scatter grandma, have a cup of champagne, and every day they drive by that park they know grandma is there. Why would they pay $20,000 to go to a memorial grove when they can scatter at any little park they want to for free?”

That act is, technically, illegal.

About 10 years ago we (sister and I + family) scattered mum's ashes on a hill overlooking Ramsbottom. A small Lancashire (UK) cotton (once) town where she had lived most of her life before moving to Canterbury. She often said she wanted to return. But what made this thread 'click' with me is that today's "The Times" (London) revealed that the ashes of General Mario Menéndez who was Governor of the Malvinas (our Falklands) in 1982 had been covertly scattered on the islands in 2015. Some of the Falklanders are apparently very upset (or pretending to be as taking offence is a curse of our age). My own take is that they can't vacuum him up so they may as well just let him rest in peace.

A greener way to go: what’s the most eco-friendly way to dispose of a body? (Guardian)

Burial uses too much land; cremation releases too much CO2. So what about composting our loved ones – or even dissolving them?

>13 John5918: Reminds me of ichthyology assignment: assemble a carp skeleton...
We were left on our own to figure out how to secure those bones.
All methods we came up with were pretty yucky, but some were unspeakable!

So far, I'm liking green burial in a naturalized area (#11).

>11 margd: green burials, contd.

Paris opens first cemetery dedicated to green burials
Katherine Martinko | October 7, 2019

...Paris recently opened its first green cemetery at Ivry-sur-Seine. Part of the already-existing cemetery has been dedicated to eco-friendly burials, meaning that Parisians concerned about the lasting ecological impact of their funerals can now rest in peace.

The cemetery will do away with gravestones, replacing them with wooden markers that the city of Paris has said it will replace every ten years. Coffins and urns must be made out of biodegradable materials, either cardboard or unvarnished local wood, and bodies must be clothed in natural biodegradable fibers. They cannot, of course, be embalmed with formaldehyde...

https://www.treehugger.com/culture/paris-opens-first-cemetery-dedicated-green-bu...

When I saw "aquamation", I assumed for the brief moment that it took to read through the post that the word referred to methods such as the creation and sinking of coral reef balls.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/reef-burial-eternal-florida-ball

Guess not.

It's been a while since I checked, but the reef balls were cheaper than many burials. I think the cost is comparable to a memorial diamond, which might be what I ask for my body to be turned into if I don't find a cheaper option soon. (Funerary costs are ridiculous! Especially following debt-inducing end-of-life healthcare costs! Anyway....) Both methods appear to me to be more environmentally friendly than the typical toxic graveyard burial.

I would love to see studies done on the estimated impacts of the different methods of disposal or conversion. Societies could be planning better.

"Every once in a while, a poem or song is so well constructed, so clearly conveys the authors meaning and is so precisely expressive that it becomes something of an anthem. The poem below, Epitaph, was written by Merrit Malloy and as one of those poems, has become a staple of funeral and memorial services…for good reason.” (David Joyce Oct 14 Facebook) It is used as an optional reading in the Reform Jewish liturgy, before Kaddish, an ancient Jewish prayer sequence regularly recited in the synagogue service.

Epitaph - By Merrit Malloy

When I die
Give what’s left of me away
To children
And old men that wait to die.

And if you need to cry,
Cry for your brother
Walking the street beside you.
And when you need me,
Put your arms
Around anyone
And give them
What you need to give to me.

I want to leave you something,
Something better
Than words
Or sounds.

Look for me
In the people I’ve known
Or loved,
And if you cannot give me away,
At least let me live on in your eyes
And not your mind.

You can love me most
By letting
Hands touch hands,
By letting bodies touch bodies,
And by letting go
Of children
That need to be free.

Love doesn’t die,
People do.
So, when all that’s left of me
Is love,
Give me away.

Two poems always come to my mind with respect to burial, perhaps because so much of my life has been spent in war.

The first is Rupert Brooke's The Soldier:

If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England...

I don't suppose the poor bugger expected to be buried, just blown to pieces in "a foreign field".

The second is The Burial of Sir John Moore after Corunna by Charles Wolfe, particularly poignant as I was recently near Corunna while making a pilgrimage on the Camino Portugues:

Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note,
As his corse to the rampart we hurried;
Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot
O'er the grave where our hero we buried...

Looking forward to hearing "Camino Tales", if any that you'll be willing to share.

My birthplace was a bit of a crossroads in early North American colonization, so one is always coming across a French or British fort, an indigenous community or protest, or a marker for "fever sheds", where unfortunate Irish immigrants succumbed after their journey. Does give one pause--especially this time of year.

The NYT did a lengthy article about alternatives

The Movement to Bring Death Closer

Bring tissues.

>20 2wonderY: Nice, but having spent one day immobilized by a knee issue, I can't imagine leaving after-death care to my guys, much as they tried to care for me. I could see it going really, really badly! :)

Maybe for me, a quick, green burial, if available. Followed later by memorial service or get-together or night launching of a flower-lantern boat (a Thai krathong, only biodegradable, of course), or private remembrance (donation to charity?), whatever, if anything, they wanted to do?

Thinking About Having a ‘Green’ Funeral? Here’s What to Know
Sonya Vatomsky | March 22, 2018
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/22/smarter-living/green-funeral-burial-environme...

Some "green burial" providers in US and Canada:
https://www.greenburialcouncil.org/
http://www.greenburialcanada.ca/

It’s the hands-on parts that mean so much to me. We’ve always insisted on washing and dressing our own deceased loved ones. The funeral homes have never argued, though they might look askance. When my infant son died, we were appalled at the plastic boxes that were offered (pink or blue) and asked a friend to build a wooden box, which he did overnight. Husband slashed our mattress and we pulled out cotton batting and used a baby quilt to line it. The hospital allowed us to transport on our own, no paperwork that I recall.

Human composting could be the future of deathcare (Guardian)

Washington becomes first US state to legalise practice as interest in green burials surges in UK

Human compost funerals 'better for environment' (BBC)

More cemeteries offering green burials, recreational space
Guest Contributor | April 6, 2023
http://greatlakesecho.org/2023/04/06/more-cemeteries-offering-green-burials-recr...

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The Fight for the Right to Be Cremated by Water
"Aquamation," a greener form of body disposal, is gaining acceptance in America. But some powerful groups are fighting to stop it.
Emily Atkin | June 14, 2018

"a single cremation emits as much carbon dioxide as a 1,000-mile car trip."

https://newrepublic.com/article/148997/fight-right-cremated-water-rise-alkaline-...

Sustainable, I guess? Risk of disease transmission, though?

Oldest evidence of human cannibalism as a funerary practice
Josh Davis | 5 Oct 2023

...Human remains dating to the same time period from across northern and western Europe and attributed to the same culture, known as the Magdalenian, also show evidence that they were cannibalized. This suggests that the eating of the dead was a shared behavior during the late Upper Paleolithic...

https://phys.org/news/2023-10-oldest-evidence-human-cannibalism-funerary.html
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William A Marsh and Silvia Bello 2023. Cannibalism and burial in the late Upper Palaeolithic: Combining archaeological and genetic evidence. Quaternary Science Reviews Volume 319, 1 November 2023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2023.108309 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277379123003578