Eco-friendly Alternatives To Burial by Lindsay Becker

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Slide Notes

There are over 7 billion people living on this planet today and in one hundred years, almost every single person will have died. After a person dies, what happens to them? The problem is that humans continue to pollute the earth, even after death. Eco-friendly options are available, and should be utilized, as alternatives to the conventional practices in the modern death care industry.

Eco-friendly Alternatives To Burial

Published on Nov 19, 2015

There are over 7 billion people living on this planet today and in one hundred years, almost every single person will have died. After a person dies, what happens to them? The question may be misleading because it is not asking about the afterlife for the individual; the question is asking about the person’s remains after passing. An uncomfortable topic for most people, but it is an important topic for those wishing to make changes in how we have affected, and continue to affect the earth after death. There has been a great push in recent years to curb the excessive amount of waste that humans produce in their lifetime. Many people are “turning over a new leaf” and trying to lead a more eco-friendly lifestyle. All of these changes have been slowly gaining mainstream attention, but there is a major component that is being overlooked. The problem is that humans continue to pollute the earth, even after death. Eco-friendly options are available, and should be utilized, as alternatives to the conventional practices in the modern death care industry.

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PRESENTATION OUTLINE

ENCOURAGING ECO-FRIENDLY ALTERNATIVES

TO CONVENTIONAL BURIAL TECHNIQUES

Photo by Werner Kunz

THE PROBLEM:

THE WAY WE BURY CREATES WASTE

There are approximately 22,500 cemeteries in the United States and every year there is more waste being added to them;
• 70 million square meters of hardwood casket lumber
• 90,272 tons of steel caskets
• 14,000 tons of steel vaults
• 2,700 bronze and copper caskets
• 1,363,000 tons of reinforced concrete vaults
• 827,000 US gallons of embalming fluid (A non-profit, community-based, funeral information source).

Photo by assortedstuff

"CONVENTIONAL" METHODS

As concerning as the pollution is, what is almost more jarring is the gross misappropriation of resources put towards housing corpses when in nearly every ten acres of a typical cemetery, enough wood is used for caskets to build the equivalent of forty homes (Seven Ponds).

Photo by Nathan Jongewaard

EMBALMING

Photo by Insight Imaging: John A Ryan Photography

EMBALMING CHEMICALS

"CANCER IN A BOTTLE"

Formaldehyde is considered a Category 1 carcinogen, having strong links to lung and brain cancer. For comparison, arsenic is also in the same category. For its toxicity, the chemical has been banned in Holland (The Green Movement). It soon may be banned entirely by the European Union due to the numerous studies showing embalmers and funeral directors having extremely high incidences of brain and colon cancer (Natural Burial Co-operative). After burial, these toxic chemicals continue to pollute the groundwater for the next 20-100 years of the decaying process (Holst).

Photo by ushtey

FORMALIN

"Phenol and its vapors are corrosive to the eyes, the skin, and the respiratory tract.[35] Repeated or prolonged skin contact with phenol may cause dermatitis, or even second and third-degree burns.[36] Inhalation of phenol vapor may cause lung edema.[35] The substance may cause harmful effects on the central nervous system and heart, resulting in dysrhythmia, seizures, and coma.[37] The kidneys may be affected as well. Long-term or repeated exposure of the substance may have harmful effects on the liver and kidneys."[38] There is no evidence that phenol causes cancer in humans.[39] Besides its hydrophobic effects, another mechanism for the toxicity of phenol may be the formation of phenoxyl radicals.[40]"

Photo by biologycorner