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How Much Does a Cremation Cost? Depends Who You Call

priceonomics.com

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Re: How Much Does a Cremation Cost? Depends Who You Call

#21

Post by cptskippy »

gambiting wrote: post #14
jjoe wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the resulting ash isn't biodegradable. Cemetery land can be reused after full decomposition and after enough time has passed.

How is it not biodegradable? It's mostly carbon and calcium, right? In which case it's as natural as it can be - saying it's not biodegradable is like saying that rocks are not biodegradable. You could probably use it as a fertilizer(not that you would want to, respect towards the deceased and all that) and it would be absolutely fine. Cemetery land is essentially locked for hundreds of years, probably more since no…

> You could probably use it as a fertilizer(not that you would want to, respect towards the deceased and all that)

That's exactly what I'd want my ashes used for.

Re: How Much Does a Cremation Cost? Depends Who You Call

#22

Post by mikeash »

cpwright wrote: post #6
jjoe wrote: post #3

I understand that the choice/decision to cremate the self is personal. But I think it stops where the personal starts affecting us all. Is cremation that negligible of an issue for the environment?

Compared to the energy you will use throughout your life, the energy used for a cremation is trivial (about a 5,000 mile drive). The alternative (burial) impacts the environment considerably as well. There is plenty of land devoted to cemeteries. Trees or metal are used (once) for the casket. In many places, you also need a concrete vault, which would add to the impact.

Does cremation really use the energy equivalent of 100-200 gallons of gasoline? That seems like a huge amount, considering a typical human body has maybe 20 gallons of flesh.

This page says it's equivalent to a 500 mile drive, which is much more believable: http://www.naturaldeath.org.uk/index.php?page=cremation

Re: How Much Does a Cremation Cost? Depends Who You Call

#23

Post by nsxwolf »

gambiting wrote: post #11
jjoe wrote: post #3

I understand that the choice/decision to cremate the self is personal. But I think it stops where the personal starts affecting us all. Is cremation that negligible of an issue for the environment?

Burying in a coffin requires wood and precious land space. What else do you propose? Burial at sea? A boat that would take your body there would also burn oil. I mean, there's a million more wasteful things that you can complain about, other than how we dispose of our bodies after death.

Why not just liquify bodies with chemicals and then flush them down the drain?

Re: How Much Does a Cremation Cost? Depends Who You Call

#24

Post by roflchoppa »

Almost all the funerals I've been to, the person is cremated. I had this strange experience when this past summer when my buddy died and his body was placed into a mausoleum. Later on when we were back in the area (LA), my other friend asked me if I wanted to go back to his mausoleum to see him. I never understood the desire to go back to those places, its almost if one is not wanting to let go of the death that took place.

Re: How Much Does a Cremation Cost? Depends Who You Call

#25

Post by joe5150 »

jjoe wrote: post #8
cpwright wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compared to the energy you will use throughout your life, the energy used for a cremation is trivial (about a 5,000 mile drive). The alternative (burial) impacts the environment considerably as well. There is plenty of land devoted to cemeteries. Trees or metal are used (once) for the casket. In many places, you also need a concrete vault, which would add to the impact.

But the resulting ash isn't biodegradable. Cemetery land can be reused after full decomposition and after enough time has passed.

Caskets and especially burial vaults aren't decomposing any time soon.

Re: How Much Does a Cremation Cost? Depends Who You Call

#26

Post by sandworm101 »

jjoe wrote: post #8
cpwright wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compared to the energy you will use throughout your life, the energy used for a cremation is trivial (about a 5,000 mile drive). The alternative (burial) impacts the environment considerably as well. There is plenty of land devoted to cemeteries. Trees or metal are used (once) for the casket. In many places, you also need a concrete vault, which would add to the impact.

But the resulting ash isn't biodegradable. Cemetery land can be reused after full decomposition and after enough time has passed.

>> ...after enough time has passed.

That time is a century or more. The US national cemetery (Arlington) is nearly full. Even after 150 year nobody would dare suggest reusing even the oldest plots.

Re: How Much Does a Cremation Cost? Depends Who You Call

#27

Post by ergothus »

Somewhat topical story: A co-worker was part of a jogging group (this was in Virginia, USA), and one of their members died after a fight with cancer. He wanted his ashes to be spread in the Botanical Gardens, where they ran.

But said Botanical Gardens had rules denying this (don't recall if it was hygiene, environmental, or just not wanting to open the door to piles of ash).

So the group somberly gathered, took his ashes, divvied them up among a collection of plastic bags, poked some holes, and went for their normal jog around the park.

At the end the bags had only bits of bone too big to fit through the holes left. (Turns out cremation doesn't result in ONLY ash).

I haven't decided if this was a triumph of individual respect over bureaucracy, or a blatant disregard for the commons.

Re: How Much Does a Cremation Cost? Depends Who You Call

#28

Post by sandworm101 »

cptskippy wrote: post #21
gambiting wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it not biodegradable? It's mostly carbon and calcium, right? In which case it's as natural as it can be - saying it's not biodegradable is like saying that rocks are not biodegradable. You could probably use it as a fertilizer(not that you would want to, respect towards the deceased and all that) and it would be absolutely fine. Cemetery land is essentially locked for hundreds of years, probably more since no…

> You could probably use it as a fertilizer(not that you would want to, respect towards the deceased and all that) That's exactly what I'd want my ashes used for.

That's what happens to pet ashes in my area. There is a farm outside of town that accepts the ash and ploughs it into fields.

Re: How Much Does a Cremation Cost? Depends Who You Call

#29

Post by refurb »

ergothus wrote: post #27

Somewhat topical story: A co-worker was part of a jogging group (this was in Virginia, USA), and one of their members died after a fight with cancer. He wanted his ashes to be spread in the Botanical Gardens, where they ran. But said Botanical Gardens had rules denying this (don't recall if it was hygiene, environmental, or just not wanting to open the door to piles of ash). So the group somberly gathered, took his a…

Turns out cremation doesn't result in ONLY ash

You actually end up with large, intact bones after cremation. They actually take the bones and grind them up into finer particles.

I've never seen cremation, ashes, but I've been told they look similar to gravel.

Re: How Much Does a Cremation Cost? Depends Who You Call

#30

Post by theophrastus »

jjoe wrote: post #3

I understand that the choice/decision to cremate the self is personal. But I think it stops where the personal starts affecting us all. Is cremation that negligible of an issue for the environment?

India, who's Hindu population require cremation as a death rite, and really needs to worry about deforestation, has been investigating direct focused solar cremations, ("Huge two parabolas of 32 m2 concentrate solar radiation"[1]). I always thought that might be an interesting way to do it, particularly if one's body could be placed so that you vaporize at sun-rise.

[1] http://www.tss-india.com/crematorium

[2] http://www.solarthermalworld.org/content/india-first-solar-c...

[3] PDF feasibility study: http://rsisinternational.org/Issue4/01-09.pdf

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