- Photo:
- dave.kuehn
- flickr
- CC-BY-NC 2.0
12 New-Age Ways To Be Buried
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Natural Burial
- Photo:
- Des Colhoun
- Wikimedia Commons
- CC BY-SA 2.0
Natural burials emerged as part of the growing "green movement" in the funerary industry. True to its name, natural burial takes the process of interring back to the basics. Instead of being embalmed, bodies are simply placed into the ground encased in nothing more than a biodegradable shroud or casket. This allows the bodies to decompose naturally, instead of adding embalming fluid, concrete, steel, and treated wood to the soil.
Many natural cemeteries take things even further, creating gardens filled with natural greenery and small stones over the graves instead of a sea of headstones. In addition to being more environmentally conscious, natural burials also eliminate the high costs that come with either cremation or embalming.
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Capsula Mundi
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Created by Italian designers Anna Citelli and Raoul Bretzel, "Capsula Mundi" involves burying remains in what look like giant seed pods. The first version of the pod will hold a person's ashes in a starch-based and completely biodegradable capsule. Phase two of the project will fit actual bodies, in the fetal position, into the pods.
Basically, you slip the ashes or corpse inside of the environmentally-friendly capsule. Before the person passes, they select the type of tree they want to grow into, which is then planted above them. Their body then feeds the tree as it decomposes. Through this process, the minds behind Capsula Mundi hope to turn "cold, grey" cemeteries into beautiful woodlands.
Would you choose this? - 3
Eternal Reefs
Becoming part of a coral reef emerged as one of the newer "green burial" options, one which definitely appeals to nature lovers. Eternal Reefs takes a person's cremains and mixes them into environmentally-friendly concrete, creating large spheres that eventually get lowered into the ocean.
Placed into areas where the reefs need help rebuilding and healing, the spheres become new homes for both fish and coral. Today, over 1,800 eternal reefs rest off the coastal United States.
Would you choose this? - 4
Resomation
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Resomation uses hot water mixed with potassium hydroxide to completely liquefy body tissues. After about three to four hours, only bones remain, which are then crushed into a powder similar to ashes after cremation. Since the process uses far less heat and energy than traditional cremation, resomation emerged as a popular option for people looking for a more eco-friendly burial.
Basically, you get all the benefits of cremation without the extra carbon dioxide or mercury from tooth fillings.
Would you choose this? - 5
Home Funerals
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People who hold home services and burials are actually doing exactly what many of our ancestors used to do, just with a modern spin. Instead of using embalming fluid, you preserve the body using dry ice. The bodies are buried on the family's property (or sometimes in a natural cemetery), and it's the family, not a mortuary home, who does all of the preparations for the body.
Many see these services as a green alternative and as a means for families to become more connected to the burial process of their loved one.
Would you choose this? - 6
Memorial Objects Made From Ashes
- Photo:
- SteenJepsen
- Pixabay
- Public Domain
Some people want more than a traditional urn and ashes for their loved ones. Thanks to modern technology, being preserved as memorial objects offers a sentimental way to be commemorated. A huge range of options exists for an interested buyer, including being made into a diamond in a lab.
You can even mix ashes with tattoo ink to create a truly unique piece of body art.
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- 7
Promession
- Photo:
- Antranias
- Pixabay
- Public Domain
Occasionally known as "human composting," promession is the process of freeze-drying a human body. Human remains get immersed in liquid nitrogen to make them fragile, and are then vibrated until they turn to powder. All water is removed, and things like implants and fillings get sorted out. This leaves behind a compost of "human powder," which decomposes naturally and swiftly in a shallow grave.
Seen as a cleaner alternative to cremation, promession has yet to be performed on any corpses, though plenty of interest for the process exists in Europe.
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- 8
Space Burial
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Space burials provide you with a sci-fi exit your friends and family will never forget. After your body gets cremated, companies like Elysium and Celestis will send your remains into space for around $2,000. From there, options get even more interesting. Elysium offers you the chance to orbit the Earth for about two years, with loved ones able to track your movements via an app until you come speeding back through the atmosphere as a shooting star.
For $12,500, Celestis will ensure you never come back to Earth, instead sending your remains into deeper space.
Would you choose this? - 9
Plastination
For those who ever considered donating their bodies to science, plastination offers an interesting alternative. It involves preserving the human body using the same method medical schools and anatomy labs use to save specimens for study. At "Body Worlds," anatomists drain bodies of excess fluids and fats and coat them with polymers, turning corpses into life-sized anatomical models.
The Institute for Plastination reports that thousands of people worldwide have signed up to donate their bodies; as a part of these museums, their remains will contribute to science and education.
Would you choose this? - 10
Floating Cemeteries
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Hong Kong has a massive problem: too many people dying and not enough space to hold them all. Around 90% of its residents already opt for cremation as opposed to burial, but even crematoriums struggle to find space for urns. The solution the city-state came up with is a futuristic graveyard - a floating off-shore cemetery to house the thousands of urns in need of a home.
Though it's not built as of publication, "Floating Eternity" will be able to hold the remains of 370,000 people. It will essentially be a boat able to move around off the coast of the island, complete with traditional adornments such as bamboo and positive feng shui. During festival times, it will be docked in an easily accessible area so family members can tend to burial sites.
Would you choose this? - 11
Cryonics
- Photo:
- Удалова Валерия Викторова
- Wikimedia Commons
- CC BY-SA 4.0
The way many people theorize that Walt Disney was interred, cryonics basically involves freezing the body and thereby preserving it. For cryonics, a customer needs the following: a lot of money (tens of thousands of dollars), a desire to hang onto life, and faith that one day the technology to revive a frozen body will become a reality.
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- 12
Mummification
- Photo:
- Unknown
- MaxPixel
- Public Domain
One of the oldest burial methods on Earth resurfaced as a way to be buried in the 20th century. Founded in 1975, a Salt Lake City-based religious organization called Summum now preserves human bodies via mummification. The group's founder, Corky Ra, said that 1,400 people signed up to be mummified when they passed, with the process in total costing about $63,000.
The idea behind the group opting for mummification is the hope that someday scientists will be able to use their DNA to create clones. They wouldn't be the same person (or come back to life), but their DNA at least would live on.
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