An important ritual of every society, traditional funerals and cremations are ecologically damaging and taking a severe toll on our environment. With the world population being pegged at over 6 billion, imagine the grave impact on our Mother Earth when a conventional cremation spews out around 400 kilogrammes of carbon dioxide into the air — a greenhouse gas blamed for global warming — along with other harmful pollutants.
Back home about four million tonnes of wood or 50 million trees are used annually for traditional cremations in India, deforesting up to 2,000 square kilometres, says the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the United Nations Development Programme. These rituals also emit eight million tonnes of carbon dioxide. Indian forests are thus under severe pressure from the rapidly growing population of 1.1 billion people.
Informs Anshul Garg, Director, Mokshda, a non-profit group in the national capital that works to offer more environment friendly cremation processes, “Yes, cremations around the world are polluting our environment. Cremations are like any industry. This is a grave concern which is prompting governments, environmentalists and organisations to search for ways to make the final rite/place a more earth-friendly one. It is time we all spread awareness among people so that they opt for less polluting mechanisms. The positive aspect is that we are witnessing an all important change.”
From greener cremation systems to coffins made of recycled cardboard to saying no to embalming chemicals, greener processes have not really caught on for religious or emotional reasons. Interestingly, a number of alternative options are being made available that are not only more eco-friendly but satisfy religious and social sentiments as well. For instance, the Mokshda crematorium uses more oxygen flow making it possible to cremate a body in one third the time, using just 220 pounds of wood. Being a high-grade, stainless steel and man-sized bier with a hood and sidewall slates that can withstand temperatures of up to 800 degrees Celsius, the system reduces wood use as well as smoke by 30 to 40 per cent. “The state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation has pledged to foot the two million-dollar construction of 30 Mokshda crematoriums in eight other Indian cities. Corporates and the Ministry of Environment and Forests has also supported the initiative. Even the Varanasi municipality has agreed in principle to shift to the Mokshda cremation system,” adds Garg.
Similarly, in Australia, reflecting a worldwide trend towards environmentally friendly, natural burials, the deceased are being buried in biodegradable coffins between trees, on bushland like in the protected koala sanctuary attached to Lismore Memorial Park Cemetery in the Northern Rivers region. Eco friendly practices and materials are also encouraged like using headstones made from natural rock and coffins made of plantation pine or recycled cardboard. According to Michael McMahon, the President of the Cemeteries and Crematoria Association (CCA) of New South Wales “Those who have an environmental conscience, those that have practised carbon footprint minimisation through their lives are now looking at this form of burial when they die.” Britain already has 228 natural burial sites owned by councils and private businesses, says the Natural Death Centre, which recently is hosted a green funeral expo in London.
Another unique process, which is gaining acceptability, is alkaline hydrolysis, popularly known as bio-cremation. A chemical body-disposal process, bio-cremations use one-tenth the natural gas of a fire-based cremation and one-third the electricity apart from cutting C02 emissions by 90 per cent. This process will eliminate the millions of tonnes of greenhouse gases and mercury pollution spewed into the atmosphere from cremations each year.
So if you have realised that there is an intrinsic connection between life and death on earth, make your departure an earth friendly ritual!