Canadian actress Rachel McAdams has recently been talking
about her green lifestyle choices, from wearing clothes made of soy to buying
her dad a composter for Christmas and riding a bicycle. But that’s not all;
she’s also planning for a very green death.
Ball reefs have caught McAdams’ attention, much like they’ve been catching on
with others looking for green burials. Basically,
people want their ashes added to environmentally-friendly concrete that is placed
in the ocean to help create new marine habitats. Cremation itself is thought to
be an eco-freindly option, but this takes it one step further. Apparently
hundreds have partaken so far. Eternal Reefs, a company offering the service,
provides the bereaved with latitude and longitude of the reef so they can find
it again.
Other green ways to go
- Conventional green - It
usually means cremation or full-body burial in a biodegradable wooden box
without embalming fluids. There are four green cemeteries in the U.S. but
traditional cemetaries will sometimes also allow natural burial. GIS
(geographic information system) is offered at some green cemetaries to
pinpoint final resting place and allow family to find it. Some are also working
towards electronic ID tags that let visitors find out information about
people buried in a location using certain devices.
- Ashes to art - Cremated
remains can be blended into watercolor paint and used to create art, or
added to the roots of a newly planted memorial tree.
- Space burial - Tubes of ashes
are launched into space where they orbit earth for up to centuries before
re-entering the atmosphere and burning up.
Why green burials?
It seems a lot of people want to continue making a difference after death. Not
to mention conventional funerals can cost up to $10,000 once everything is
taken care of. These alternative measures cost as low as a few hundreds
dollars, up to several thousand.
I don’t really want to plan for my death anytime soon, but it’s something to
think about. I do like the idea of my body going back to nature when I’m done
with it.
