Undoing it: how to reduce your body’s environmental impact after death | Death and dying

Iit may seem small among the decisions people have to make as they face the end of their lives, but what happens to their bodies can make a big difference in the final cost delivered to the environment.

In many Western countries, cremation is the most common form of death care – chosen by almost a third of Australians – but it is arguably the most environmentally damaging.

Sustainability assurances PlanetMark has found the average burning of gas emits the equivalent of 125kg of carbon dioxide. That includes methane, nitrous oxides, sulfur dioxide and other compounds and volatile organic compounds. If you have mercury dental fillings, they also evaporate. Some industry statistics suggest that carbon emissions could be higher.

It’s about the same amount of pollution as driving a Ford Ranger from Melbourne to Canberra.

Traditional burial, another common choice, leaches chemicals into the soil where deeply buried bodies and wooden coffins break down. Land preparation after burial can also release greenhouse gases.

“In fact throughout our history as an Australian society, we have only done two things and they have proved to be completely adequate,” said Dr Kate Falconer, an Australian death law researcher based at University College Cork in Ireland.

But Australians are becoming more open to alternative ways of saying goodbye, according to Dr Domenic Trimboli, an architect and urban planner at Curtin University, who has researched funeral customs and spaces in Australia.

“Many people, regardless of their age, had thought about what they wanted to happen to them, and there was a curiosity to know other ways.”

Cleaning options

Less natural burials and alternative methods can be gentler on the environment.

In a natural burial, there is little preparation or embalming. A deceased person is usually buried in a natural cloth or a rotting coffin at a shallow depth, and it decomposes into the surrounding soil within ten years. It leads to negligible emissions of greenhouse gases and returns the body to the earth.

New cremation technologies are also emerging. Aquamation, also known as resomation or alkaline hydrolysis, is a cremation-like process that uses water instead of fire. Immersed in an alkaline solution, the body decomposes within a few hours, leaving the bones to powder and return to the family – a “cleaner” decomposition than gas heat, which combines the coffin with the body as ashes.

Although not widely available outside the US, terramation – human composting – is being looked at elsewhere, including Australia, where Independent MP Alex Greenwich this week introduced a bill in the NSW parliament to allow the process. It involves placing the body in a box-like vessel next to living organisms, bacteria or fungi. The body is slowly turned into compost.

Rigid boxes

Although alternatives to death care are slowly emerging, traditional methods can be made sustainable.

“Small decisions on a large scale, I think, can make a big difference,” Falconer said.

Take the boxes. “I don’t think a lot of people realize how ugly coffins are,” Falconer said.

“Many coffins may be made of wood, but they are often covered with lacquer, they have plastic cords, the handles are all plastic… [coffins] they are usually imported.”

Replacing a metal coffin with plastic parts for an untreated pine, cardboard or wicker basket reduces emissions from burials.

PlanetMark rates the mahogany veneer box with plastic handles and liner to produce more than 170kg when heated.

In comparison, natural burial with a cardboard box and wire handles produces less than 10kg. The biodegradable bag has the lowest emissions of any ship in PlanetMark’s analysis at 0.3kg.

Trimboli says some of the methods are less expensive than cremation.

“There is no reason that in the long run that won’t be more competitive, if it isn’t already,” he said.

Industry practices are changing

Consumers aren’t the only ones looking for sustainable funeral options. Energy efficiency, waste reduction and re-use of funeral materials can also reduce industry costs.

Sharyn Moll, a former funeral director and national councilor for the industry’s peak organization Funerals Australia helped develop an industry sustainability guide published last year.

“A lot of calls [for sustainable practices] it actually comes from the industry and not from the community,” said Moll. “All businesses need to try to be sustainable, so it’s really good business.”

Have a conversation

Falconer says regulatory ambiguity and inconsistencies can make it difficult to have a national impact, but a major obstacle to sustainable death care is the tendency for Australians to leave funeral decisions until after a loved one has died. “The smallest decisions have the biggest impact on the environment.”

The dead who are forced to make quick decisions and deal with grief are often given a traditional burial or cremation.

“If people insist on having a ‘normal’ funeral, that’s what we have to give them,” said Moll.

“What I would like to see in the industry is for people to know more about what is available, what is available, so that they can think about all that, talk to their family about it, so when the time comes, they will know what they would like.”