<
https://www.positive.news/society/eco-concerns-prompt-green-funeral-options/>
"Keeping a lid on your carbon footprint doesn’t stop with your last breath.
Your choice of funeral can have a significant environmental impact. In a recent
report by the US-based National Funeral Directors Association, 60.5% of those
surveyed expressed their interest in greener options including resomation
(water cremation) human composting and natural burials.
And while the UK’s funeral preferences are currently split 80:20 between
cremations and burials, YouGov research finds that almost a third (29%) of
people in the UK would choose alternative committal methods if available.
Sophia Campbell Shaw founder of Woven Farewell Coffins is one of the UK’s 10
willow coffin makers, and keen to take more environmentally friendly options
mainstream. “The funeral sector is one of the most polluting sectors,” she
tells
Positive News from her base in Devon. “One cremation uses as much
energy as a 500-mile car trip and releases a staggering 400 kilos of carbon
dioxide into the atmosphere.”
Traditional burials don’t fare much better: in the US alone, 800,000 gallons of
formaldehyde is placed in the ground each year in the form of embalming fluids.
And many coffins include metal, plastics and caustic glue, she points out.
From this spring, Campbell Shaw is upping her company’s eco-credentials
further by offering families the option of renting rather than buying a
casket. She points out that in some cultures, include in the US, rental is
common. “A person’s memorial is held in a rented casket and the body’s
transferred into a cardboard coffin afterwards,” she says.
To reduce the carbon footprint of her coffins, all of Campbell Shaw’s materials
are fully biodegradable. Her standard willow coffins are designed with
materials that will biodegrade and return to compost, but she now also offers a
rental coffin. This is also made of biodegradable materials but designed as a
flatpack of panels that can be assembled, dismantled, stored by funeral
directors and re-assembled."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
