[Greenbuilding] Green Funerals

Nick Pyner npyner at tig.com.au
Wed Feb 1 16:47:04 CST 2012


I don't think there is anything attractive in cremation as a choice but it
goes a long way to reduce landfill and has to be more socially responsible.

Upright burials were common in Britain and/or Ireland in the bronze age,
where land conservation was probably not an issue. I recall it was common in
New Zealand, and led to cheaper funerals.

We got a cardboard coffin for my father's funeral a couple of years ago. It
cost $600 and the great-grandchildren did a fine job decorating it. I have
no doubt that that would have appealed to his green sensibilities, and was
was in the cardboard making industry. The manufacturer is no longer in
business.

I have never heard of rented coffins. It sounds like a great idea.

A bikie gang leader was murdered recently and his $45,000 gold-plated coffin
was paraded through Adelaide on a Harley Davidson hearse. I guess it was a
rent-a-coffin, and these people were not as moronic as I thought.

There should be legal restrictions on the costs of funerals, and the
cardboard coffin is a means towards that. That way, everybody would know
that a $45,000 coffin was rented.

Nick Pyner

Dee Why   NSW

-----Original Message-----
From: greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org
[mailto:greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org]On Behalf Of RT


ie I'm curious as to the attraction that cremation seems to hold for
many,  an option which has claims of "Green" being associated with it (an
opinion with which I disagree).

ie The "Green" UK practise of "upright" burials, ostensibly with an eye to
conserving space.
I have visions of the effects of frost heave creating horrific scenes
every Spring if this practise were carried out in most Canadian locales.

ie cardboard coffins ? N-n-n-nyeh. Rented coffins ? Mmmnhh.
  ... and so on.






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