Ashes to ashes or dust to dust

My father always joked that when he died he wanted to be stuffed and placed in the living room with a cup of tea and a book. Not a terribly practical plan for the disposition of his remains. What he chose, instead, was far less environmentally friendly. He went for the least green alternative: embalming, lead-lined coffin, and cement-lined grave. He will be there pretty much forever.

I would prefer to hang around as briefly as possible and maybe even do something positive after I go. Happily, “green burials” are more widely available these days. Many funeral directors are taking note and offering more appealing choices.

For a lot of people green burial simply means skipping the embalming, the lead-lined coffin, and the cement so they can “biodegrade” as nature intended. But it may be difficult to find a resting place that will accept you au naturel. Keep looking. There are at least four green burial grounds in Connecticut.

Let me be clear. If you want a traditional burial, you should have one. There are religions and cultures that mandate in ground burial. If this is what you want, make it known! If you do not tell anyone what you want, you forfeit that choice. But for the rest of us, there are new alternatives to burial or cremation (which releases over 500 pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere along with toxic mercury from dental fillings.) I am excited about several new options.

Aquamation, or water cremation (alkaline hydrolysis) reduces you to calcified bones. It uses 90% less energy than flame cremation with no release of mercury. Afterwards, the bones are crushed and returned to the family.

Tree pod burials are growing in popularity and evolving. At the moment, you would still need to be cremated first. Then your ashes are mixed with soil and enclosed in a biodegradable capsule. The capsule is buried beneath a tree and slowly releases nutrients back into the soil. The tree pod people are working on a way to do the same with whole bodies.

For dedicated foragers the Mushroom Burial Suit might be the perfect choice. The deceased is wrapped in a shroud impregnated with mushroom spores. The body is buried at the appropriate depth to permit the mushrooms to grow. Fans of The Last of Us might want to avoid this one.

A bill to allow human composting was introduced in the Connecticut Legislature in February. There was a backlash from people who feel that their choices should be everyone’s choices. There is nothing “disrespectful” in an eco-friendly end. No one is going to insist that they participate in human composting. The choices I mention are just a greener version of “ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”

There are a million ways you can honor the dead that do not require a cemetery plot. Make sure your choice is known before it is too late.

Lisa Wright divides her time between her home in Lakeville and Oblong Books in Millerton where she has worked for nearly 40 years. Email her at wrightales@gmail.com