When Cemeteries Go Bankrupt

[Ben]

I never thought about it before, but an interesting article on what happens when cemeteries go out of business:

http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2015/04/happens-cemeteries-go/

[MechAg94]

Reminder to go for cremation.

[Ron]

Isn't there some company out there that will turn you into compost in a pot for a tree seedling?

[vaskidmark]

Isn't there some company out there that will turn you into compost in a pot for a tree seedling?

Just remember to put a trash bag over the outlet.

stay safe.

[charby]

Isn't there some company out there that will turn you into compost in a pot for a tree seedling?

I really want to start a green cemetery.

Body is buried either wrapped in a cotton cloth or in a simple wooden box with a small rfid tag. No embalming, no materials that don't decompose. This would be very friendly also to Jews, Muslims and granola grinders.

No headstones, the RF tag is for loved ones to find you if they want to visit your grave.

Graves are available as people die, so you may not be buried next to your spouse (or a spot is reserved next to you at time of death) RF Tags can assist with locating the available grave.

Planted in native prairie vegetation, sign at the entrance of who is buried there.

This is hard where I live, because in Iowa the body must be embalmed if not cremated or buries within 48 hours of death.

[MechAg94]

Just put a memmorial at the front with names engraved for who is buried there. 

[Kingcreek]

I never could understand why they plant them flat horizontal. Could fit a lot more in the same space if they went in vertical and a hole auger is a lot faster than a backhoe.

[charby]

Just put a memmorial at the front with names engraved for who is buried there. 

Yep, yep, sign at the front gate.

[Firethorn]

Body is buried either wrapped in a cotton cloth or in a simple wooden box with a small rfid tag. No embalming, no materials that don't decompose. This would be very friendly also to Jews, Muslims and granola grinders.

Note, 'small' rfid tags won't reach through 8' of dirt.  These services already exist, you just have to look for them.  They've had some trouble with the state wanting more substantial burial stuff, but they generally 'got told' by religious rules, and once you're allowing XYZ religions to be buried without the embalming and concrete, you might as well let the hippies be buried that way as well.

As such, I'd go with a 'heatstone' made out of a renewable resource - a quality wood carving.  With regular maintenance, it can last hundreds of years.  When the family STOPS maintaining it(for example, a new coat of organic varnish once a year), and it degrades past point X, you remove it and the plot is free to be used again.

This is hard where I live, because in Iowa the body must be embalmed if not cremated or buries within 48 hours of death.

Embalming doesn't actually slow decomposition down that much if you're not buried in a sealed container.  You'd be hard to find in a few decades.

[MillCreek]

http://biocremationinfo.com/whatisbiocremation.aspx

Chemical cremation: put the body in a heated pressure cooker full of lye.  It leaves only sterile white bone fragments.

[Stand_watie]

http://biocremationinfo.com/whatisbiocremation.aspx

Chemical cremation: put the body in a heated pressure cooker full of lye.  It leaves only sterile white bone fragments.

How interesting. I happen to run a glass furnace, and directly after me the glass goes to four big "pressure cookers" ("Dissolvers"), has lye added and gets cooked at 100-130 p.s.i. 

[Stand_watie]

Sorry for killing your thread Ben.

[Ben]

Sorry for killing your thread Ben.

 

[MechAg94]

Sorry for killing your thread Ben.

The question is what does Ben want done with it now that it is dead? 

[RoadKingLarry]

[erictank]

Isn't there some company out there that will turn you into compost in a pot for a tree seedling?

Talk to MadMike?

[charby]

Note, 'small' rfid tags won't reach through 8' of dirt.  These services already exist, you just have to look for them.  They've had some trouble with the state wanting more substantial burial stuff, but they generally 'got told' by religious rules, and once you're allowing XYZ religions to be buried without the embalming and concrete, you might as well let the hippies be buried that way as well.

As such, I'd go with a 'heatstone' made out of a renewable resource - a quality wood carving.  With regular maintenance, it can last hundreds of years.  When the family STOPS maintaining it(for example, a new coat of organic varnish once a year), and it degrades past point X, you remove it and the plot is free to be used again.

Embalming doesn't actually slow decomposition down that much if you're not buried in a sealed container.  You'd be hard to find in a few decades.

I don't want the chemicals from embalming leaking into the ground water.

My green cemetery would be prairie or oak savannah, which would require some annual burning of the grasses to keep it in a prairie. I'm not planning on mowing once the prairie is established.

I got the RF tag idea from another green cemetery in California to identify the unmarked graves.

Not doing this from a hippie point of view, just something for people who want to return to the earth naturally after they die.

[MechAg94]

So no one wants their body dropped in the wilderness to be eaten by wild animals and bugs? 

[Ben]

So no one wants their body dropped in the wilderness to be eaten by wild animals and bugs? 

My dad thinks cemeteries are stupid, but he absolutely refuses to be cremated. The law won't let him do what he wants though, which is to be buried on the farm to fertilize the crops.

[charby]

So no one wants their body dropped in the wilderness to be eaten by wild animals and bugs? 

I'd do it, but who is going to drag my dead carcass far enough from the road that no one can smell it rot?

[Stand_watie]

So no one wants their body dropped in the wilderness to be eaten by wild animals and bugs? 

I'm o.k. with that if my loved ones are, it's their thoughts that count. A big bur oak at the back corner of my property would be a nice marker for me with a simple pine box  and no preservation would be purely aesthetic preference. It's distinctive and been here a few years and will continue to be here for a couple hundred more to give my grandkids a marker and subsequent generations a legend of the strange bad old days when they buried people.

[RevDisk]

Meh, I expect to be put onto a wooden boat and set on fire. Preferably with my collection of napalm canisters.

[erictank]

Personally, I incline towards cremation. I see no reason to have my body stuck in a box in the ground. Don't know yet what I want done with the ashes, though.

Seems to run in the family - Dad was cremated when he died a few years ago and buried in his father's grave, and Mom was cremated last December after her death. I'd figured Mom for cremation, but I was a little surprised by Dad.