Pardon Our Dust: Decisions for the End of Life: the title of the 2024 book was not intended to be facetious or disrespectful. It was intended to be cautionary.
Many don’t like to think about the subject, let alone talk about it. It’s known as ‘death aversion.’ And it probably should be avoided.
We all must make these decisions for the sake of our families to avoid them being unprepared when that inevitable time arrives.
Set aside your feelings. Face the facts. And do the math.
As Sara Williams, president of the national advocacy organization, The Funeral Consumers Alliance, says, “We’ve been shouting this message for 30 years.” She explained (as diplomatically as she could — not in a mean way) “Get your stuff together you’re going to die it’s not if, it’s when and if you wait till the last minute, it will be a complete mess.”
By the end of 2023, more than 8 billion human beings were living on earth. An estimated 1.1 billion of those were baby boomers, 15 percent of the global population. Almost 70 million of those boomers were Americans, 9.2 million Canadians, 14 million living in the UK, 5.4 million in Australia and over a million in New Zealand.
Most of them will have died by 2060.
The United Nations population division estimated the number of total global deaths at 67 million in the year 2022, its prediction reaching 92 million in 2050, just 26 years from 2024. The UN mortality forecast continued climbing up to the turn of the century.
On the brighter side, improvements in survival were forecast, with average life expectancy at birth reaching 77.2 years in 2050, up from the World Health Organization’s 2022 report of 72.0 years (74.2 female and 69.8 years males).
The US National Library of Medicine 24 years earlier foresaw a major public policy concern of the long-term care sector facing challenges, with an aging society burdening the care-giving system and its finances. The “2030 problem” would see insufficiencies when the elderly population reach even older ages. Boomers by 2030, it said, will be 66 to 84—the ‘young old,’ numbering 61 million. Those born before 1946—the ‘oldest old’—will number nine million by 2030, it predicted.
The funeral industry, governments at all levels and all religions should be ensuring that all possible, scientifically safe and environmentally sound alternatives become accessible to millions. If they don’t, the planet could find itself in more than just an environmental crisis, one in which humans can no longer find suitable and respectful methods for disposition of their deceased.
Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a staunch environmentalist who died at the end of 2021, had requested aquamation for his service out of his concern over global warming and pollution.
Individuals and their families can — and should — make their own decisions anytime now, particularly before the usual options become less available. Choosing a method of disposition may — or may not — be more complicated than it appears. It may depend on one’s religion — or lack thereof.
1) Particularly in larger centers, they’re running short of space, with the costs of burial plots escalating beyond affordability for many families. They also pose environmental concerns, leaching pollutants into groundwater and causing contamination of nearby streams. Two American academics have referred to them as “landscapes of death.”
2) “You’re talking about 3.5 to 3.7 million deaths a year in the United States, about a million more than we’re facing right now,” says Carlton Basmajian of Florida State University. “We have no idea what’s coming.”
3) David Charles Sloane’s book Is the Cemetery Dead? points out that cemeteries can be wasteful and harmful, with chemicals, caskets and manicured greens adding to the problem.
· In the US, cremation has been forecast to rise to 73 percent by 2030. By 2040, it is expected to reach 79 percent, with burials dropping to 16 percent. The situation is similar in Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand. The median cost of cremation in the US is $2,300 or less, depending on the provider. The average cost is actually only a few hundred dollars, but the consumer is likely to pay considerably more. Most crematories burn efficiently. But if 70 percent of the millions of Americans expected to die over the next 50 years choose cremation, it will amount to more than 1.4 billion gallons of fossil fuels and 27:5 billion pounds of CO2. Cremation uses about the same amount of energy and has similar emissions as two tanks of gas in an average car.
Natural (or green) burials are considered by advocates as an act of kindness to the environment. The body must be in its natural state to permit natural decomposition. The primary advocacy organization is the Global Green Burial Alliance which acknowledges a debate over the use of the word ‘green.’ A burial ground is considered green only if it provides care with minimal environmental impact, reduces carbon emissions, protects worker health and preserves natural habitats. Groups in the United States, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, are buying up land to conserve it for nature and human body disposition. They involve no formaldehyde embalming, concrete burial vaults or varnished mahogany caskets. Wicker, bamboo, and cardboard are options. Plastics, acrylics and other synthetics are banned. There’s no tombstone or grass treated with pesticides. Grave markers may be natural fieldstones, or none at all.The United States has over 90 registered green burial cemeteries and woodlands as natural burial sites, plus many hybrid cemeteries. In the UK, 200 to 300 sites are designated for natural burial. Canadian provinces have ten certified green-burial cemeteries.
Cemeteries are known to offer green burials in response to public pressure. There's an unfortunate surge in ‘greenwashing,’ operators making false claims about environmental impacts, with many suppliers masquerading as green.
This relatively new technology is seen by many as the gentlest way to depart the earth. It requires no use of valuable land and has little environmental impact. But like flame cremation, it happens swiftly, dissolving the body in a mixture of heated water and lye. Also referred to as aqua-cremation, bio-cremation and flameless cremation, the terms depend on the legal interpretation of cremation. But this method may be among the most widely accepted alternatives to burning bodies. The process uses five times less energy than cremation and reduces greenhouse gases by 35 percent.Catholic bishops’ stand would make more sense if their opposition applied only to Catholics, who then can make their own decisions. But it extends to entire populations. Non-Catholics regard it as arrogant and unfair.
Archbishop Tutu’s decision to opt for aquamation was considered influential, potentially influencing the Catholic Church to endorse the technology. The body, placed in stainless-steel basket, is inserted in a pressurized vessel filled with water and an alkali solution of potassium hydroxide and caustic soda. The body's weight determines the amount of water and alkaline. A residual coffee-colored liquid is flushed down the drain as a peptide soap. The process can take from hours to most of day. All that remains are the skeleton and teeth, which are dried and pulverized, similar to cremation. But unlike flame cremation, mercury fillings are disposed of in an environmentally safe manner.
The price of simple aquamation is about $1,600 to $2,000. But that may drop as it becomes more popular.
By late 2024, 31 states had legalized the process, with legislation pending in 16 others. The process is approved in Canadian provinces of Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan. It's also legal in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, and under review in the Netherlands and South Africa.
These mushroom-based coffins offer another new way of revolutionizing disposition. Mycelium fibre caskets now shows signs of—literally—taking root. “It's how nature does it,” its bio-designer says. Putting a body in a concrete box and letting it rot for years "doesn’t make a lot of sense,” says Bob Hendrikx, CEO of Loop Biotech in the Netherlands.
Mycelium is a root-like structure consisting of thread-like branches that neutralize the body’s toxins and turns them into nutrients that plants absorb. By late 2021, the company had delivered the mushroom coffins to the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria, the UK and United States. The price per coffin, excluding shipping, can be ordered online for €1,495 ($1,631USD/$2,079 CAD), with a discounted buy-now-pay-later plan. The mycelium coffins still require burial space, but are absorbed into soil in a month to forty-five days and the body is gone in two to three years.
Another relatively new technique, known as composting, naturally reduces the body to its basic elements, bones and teeth. As with aquamation, composting returns the body to earth by natural methods much more quickly than burial.
The not-for-profit Herland Forest Cemetery was the first to use this method. Its process operates off the power grid, with a price of $3,000, reduced to $2,700 if the family is directly involved. Since Herland Forest begam, several private sector companies now offer the process, three in Washington state, where it was approved in 2019. It's since been legalized in six states, Vermont, Colorado, Oregon, New York, Nevada and California.
Bodies are placed in a reusable vessel with carbon-rich wood chips, alfalfa and straw, when combined with oxygen, increase microbial activity that releases enzymes to break down tissue into components, amino acids and nitrogen-rich molecules, creating a soil-like substance. The 131°F (55°C) heat is said to destroy disease-causing pathogens. After a month, the remains are reduced to a cubic yard of soil and given to the person’s family or to conservation groups to rehabilitate forests. The Recompose company charges $7,000 per body, while other companies charge a variety of prices. Return Home is the third NOR venture in the state. Called “terramation,” it transforms a body for $4,950. A Colorado company charges $7,900 per body, four times the cost of flame cremation.
Ed Bixby of the Global Green Burial Alliance would not endorse Recompose, troubled by its “lack of transparency and accountability.” Bixby is skeptical about demand for human composting. He doesn’t foresee a large market for the process. The composting process also isn't gentle, he adds, contrary to how it's been described by some.
Called the last, best thing people can do, body donations are regarded by the medical community as the greatest gift one can make. Individuals and families are encouraged to consider full body donations at or before a death. In most countries, body donations must follow laws and donors need to know how the process varies.
Consent is provided by completing forms from an anatomy school, or orally in the presence of witnesses. The next of kin may also be required to consent. Body donations are not considered disposition, since bodies can’t be used indefinitely. They're either cremated, buried or at some anatomy labs, disposed of by aquamation. Universities and nursing homes reinforce the significance of donations. Funeral homes also explain the option. Services of gratitude are held annually by anatomy schools, attended by family members. Another option for those who wish to have their organs donated can join a registry providing legal consent, often included with a driver’s license.
A number of less-conventional options are also available -- some more practical and marketable than others.
Eternal or burial reefs involve artificially constructed marine habitats. The cremated bodies of people seeking green burial options are laid to rest as a part of these artificial reefs, becoming a habitat for marine life. Large reef memorials accommodate multiple sets of remains. Memorial plaques may be installed with the person's name, date of birth and death. Costs vary, ranging from $4,000 to $7,500, depending on which company is used.
Bodies in orbit. SpaceX rockets have launched portions of cremated human remains into space. Funeral flights cost up to $5,000 to fly one gram of ‘participant’ remains into orbit. Since 1994, it’s flown cremated remains on 15 rockets into sub-orbital flights and six into earth Earth’s orbit.
Sky burial, also called ‘bird-scattered,’ or ‘celestial burial,’ is a funeral practice used by some eastern religions. The body is placed on a mountaintop or tower to decompose while exposed to the elements to be eaten by scavenging animals, mainly carrion birds.
Body farms allow study of decomposition for research, usually for forensic purposes. Individuals agree to have their remains studied while placed outside in the elements. This scientific work contributes to understanding the process of decomposition in criminal cases, fires, drowning or other causes. Seven facilities exist across the US, as well as similar ones in Australia and Canada.
Burial pods are still just an idea. Capsula Mundi (‘world’s capsule’) is an organic egg-shaped pod designed by two Italian artists. They would contain a tree or seed, fertilized by a decomposing body in a fetal position and planted in woodlands. The company was last marketing only biodegradable urns. It says the pods “aren’t yet ready for the market.”
The ‘infinity burial suit,' a variation on the mycelium concept, involves flesh-eating mushrooms that break down the bodies, cleansing them of toxins and returning remains to soil.