Eco death don’t read if you’re depressed ?

MacSporran and I have read an amazing book - 'All That Remains' - written by Professor Dame Sue Black. We now wish to leave our bodies to the pathology department of a teaching hospital for the benefit of medical science.

No thanks bags I ve never been to Florida I don’t fancy it after I m dead either ?

If you choose cremation, you can have your ashes made into a rock to form the base of an “eternal memorial reef” so that you can help coral reefs bloom after you’ve died. One Florida-based company offers a "second life at sea" bit.ly/2luRhrh

from Twitter a/c: @Rainmaker1973

I d just like to go in a shroud that’s good enough isn’t it I don’t fancy spinning around for 80 days and I don’t mind if my bones stay around the rest of me is of a reasonable size to feed a lot of ants and the bones can just be there in the earth helping the ground have some stability

www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/dissolving_the_dead

Here's another option though not sure if available yet in UK

I heard about the scheme Riverwalk refers to and read abiut it in the Observer (I think). The body is out in a cylinder with a some straw, a bit of peat and activated bacteria and the cylinder turns slowly ( a bit like a concrete lorry for about 30 days. By that time your body, bones and all is reduced to compost and they suggest can be dugin orund a favourite tree.

It uses far less fuel than cremation and the resulting compost will just biodegrade into the earth

They must have a facility for composting bones as animal bones go into food waste which is turned into compost.

I quite fancy being the compost which feeds a tree.

You can have a burial shroud. I do smile when I think of the horrified look on DD2's face when it was suggested to us for DD1 though.

You can have a cardboard coffin or wicker I think

Can you be buried with no coffin Oppsadaisy I d prefer that
Never seen that happen though
I like the thought of me feeding the insects and ground instead of polluting the air but don’t like the idea of being shut in a big coffin

merlotgran that is so sad and I feel for you.
My Mum opted for cremation as she (and all of us) walked miles to get to the churchyard to put flowers on my grandparents grave every week and she said that she wouldnt wish it on us.
I visited their grave last year and feel guilty for not having been there for a long time but we moved away from the area many years ago.
But I couldn’t go down the medical science route though, although I am an organ donor, if anything still works when I pop off!

I have been to the Burning Ghats in India.
I found it to be very moving.
Then wood was used to burn so much more eco than our crematoriums

I want to grow wild flowers when I am dead. and No coffin

My friend has left her body to science They collect the body then if they decide not to use it (I guess too old or too many bodies at that moment or maybe not right for whatever they are investigating at that time) the family then have the choice to have the body back or to have it disposed of by the science people (by what method it doesn’t say) my friend has opted for it being got rid of by them She has told her three sons (none live near her) and they are all happy with leaving her with the science service to dispose of, no ceremony or anything to arrange She doesn’t have any church beliefs

DD is buried in a woodland cemetery. She had a wicker casket which we covered with a natural looking spray. You have to remove them straight after committal or pay for it to be done a week later. We took it to the wake where I dismantled it and made individual posies for mourners to take away.

We have bought a tree for the wooded area just above her grave. Stone plaques are not placed until the area has settled and after wildflower meadow management has been carried out.

I'm not sure it's what I want for me though. I would far prefer to be cremated and have my ashes scattered there. Although there is no tending for families to do, I feel guilty that because it's 45 mins away I don't visit frequently and as we are now the only members of her family living in the area it's a 'responsibility.'

I know I'm being silly because the whole idea of a natural burial is you let nature take its course.

Did you see a programme on TV a year or so ago ? I think it was called ‘a body farm’ in the USA , they left the cadavers outside or covered with various materials and let them get infested with bugs. It was for training purposes for forensics. Helped them to be able to tell how long a person had been dead for etc. The bodies had been left to medical science.
Shudder.........
I’m not sure what happened after they had finished with them though.

What about leaving one’s body to science? Some of the med schools still use cadavers as well as computer imagery for anatomy etc . Is that considered eco friendly ? I don’t know what happens to cadavers after they’re finished with, but I expect they’re cremated rather than composted.

I m pretty sure when I was in the Far East people were buried upright
I do know there was a outdoor pyre nearby and I won’t go into details but the burning process wasn’t pleasant even though we didn’t see anything

I learnt recently that the people in Tibet consider water, soil and air to be pure and therefore not to be polluted by dead bodies.

Buried upright! No it sounds all wrong

I do worry about it with all of the flooding, what is happening in all of these graveyards?

Cremation for me. Burials take up space, and I don’t like the thought of bodies lying in saturated graves. And eventually unloved graves that no one visits or thinks about. Perhaps green sites are better for that, I don’t really know.

I'm with eebeew. DH & I want to buy plots for green burials, and are researching this.

Composting seems the newest way. www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-47031816

I rather like the idea of being put back into the earth. Or maybe I’d state that each of my children had to have some of my compost and grow an aspidistra in me.

I think woodland burials sound good but have been put off after a friend chose that. Her body was buried in an upright position and that just seems weird to me. I know you wouldn’t know but it doesn’t seem very....restful.

Sorry an extra ‘how’ plonked down in there somehow.

riverwalk it’s good that your family know how your wishes, but for those who want to be eco friendly they do worry about it now, I’m sure there will be many who will want to find out more about this seemingly eco friendly way.

However, I’m with you on this one, my family know what I want to happen and hopefully it won’t be composting.

Although if DD1 had her way it would be.

I’ll be happy just as long as I’m dead.!

Oopsadaisy I have made my wishes known in my will and to my family - I was referring to the burden of having eco-worries about my dead body!