Interesting Burial Facts

[Justin Spencer]

Some interesting facts I ran across the other day, seems like a waste to me and will probably become an issue in the not to distant future. Is death a man made problem?

Each year, 22,500 cemeteries across the United States bury approximately:

30 million board feet (70,000 m³) of hardwoods (caskets)

90,272 tons of steel (caskets)

14,000 tons of steel (vaults)

2,700 tons of copper and bronze (caskets)

1,636,000 tons of reinforced concrete (vaults)

827,060 US gallons (3,130 m³) of embalming fluid, which most commonly includes formaldehyde.[2]

They did say the formaldehyde breaks down to an inert substance before it reaches the soil so at least it may not be polluting the soil and groundwater.

[gotmuddy]

I intend to be cremated as does my wife. The costs involved with burying bodies is ridiculous.

[Wayne SW/MO]

Amazing!

[jdmidwest]

Some of the studies actually show they may affect the groundwater with the embalming and other byproducts. Of course, it may be a scare tactic.

I have requested a simple pine casket, and burial on the family farm in an unorganized location, no vaults. I want to return to earth as I am, no byproducts. Cremation causes pollution which causes global warming,"sic".

The processes of decay should be simple. Why embalm, I don't need to look good after death? Why a vault, I don't need protection of my remains? I think the state requires a casket of some sort, it does not have to be elaborate, it needs to decay as the body does.

It amazes me to the lengths some people go to during the funeral process. I have attended the burial of a friends dad, so I thought, only to scatter the ashes during the following duck season. We buried an almost empty elaborate coffin in a vault with full military honors. And we scattered a vial of ashes around his favorite duck hunting spots.

No matter what, all we are left with is the memory and the spirit of the individual that has passed.

[flytyer57]

What?

No estimate of how much land is wasted for those cemetaries?

Really.

How many family members go to visit the graves of their dead great-great-great-great-great-great grandparents whose rotted remains are somewhere under some old tombstone that is no longer even legible?

[Justin Spencer]

Think of how many more golf courses we could have if we got rid of cemetaries. I don't blame the funeral homes we all know that we and our loved ones will die at some time so death is not the time to make those decisions. It is ridiculous how you go through the funeral home and pick and choose what you want for the funeral all with dollar signs attached. Fun to see their faces when you say you just want cremation as they see dollar signs burning with the body. I think it is comforting to some people to have this service and by all means that is their choice however silly it may seem to the rest of us. This is just another business that like it or not helps drive our economy.

[Outside Bend]

At one point I wanted to be cremated and made into fireworks for the enjoyment of my friends and family.

I think I've matured, though. Now I just want a coffee-can, Donny style.

[Tim Smith]

Some of the studies actually show they may affect the groundwater with the embalming and other byproducts. Of course, it may be a scare tactic.

I have requested a simple pine casket, and burial on the family farm in an unorganized location, no vaults. I want to return to earth as I am, no byproducts. Cremation causes pollution which causes global warming,"sic".

The processes of decay should be simple. Why embalm, I don't need to look good after death? Why a vault, I don't need protection of my remains? I think the state requires a casket of some sort, it does not have to be elaborate, it needs to decay as the body does.

It amazes me to the lengths some people go to during the funeral process. I have attended the burial of a friends dad, so I thought, only to scatter the ashes during the following duck season. We buried an almost empty elaborate coffin in a vault with full military honors. And we scattered a vial of ashes around his favorite duck hunting spots.

No matter what, all we are left with is the memory and the spirit of the individual that has passed.

I like this (even if JD still has hard feelings about the global warming thread).

Not sure if the carbon footprint required to pull together a pine box equals the offgassing from cremation, but that's a thoughtful, challenging post.

I might be inclined to follow suit, but I'd also like to be interred in a place that's meaningful to me. Those tend to be bodies of water I have fought for and enjoyed and it wouldn't do to flump a whole carcass into any of those. We'll be doing the ashes thing.

[flytyer57]

When my wife died, it cost me over $2000 to have her cremated as per her wishes. It cost over $1000 to have a memorial gathering at the funeral home. It cost me over $200 for an urn for her ashes which I keep on the dresser in the bedroom (can't afford to bury her.)

I like the way the indians did it. Wrap me up in some old blankets and lay my body out on a stilt platform for it to rot away and feed the animals. 100 years later, there are no remains left behind that I even existed.

[flytyer57]

And keep bringing up carbon footprints and Phil will have an X on this thread too.