The unusual burial upset the parish priest, who distanced himself from the family's wishes because the burial did not correspond to the Catholic Christian ritual, Read more

Now she is creating glass jewellery from her mother's ashes. Read more

The approach, called recomposition, is currently being discussed by lawmakers and, if approved, could become a legal third option for after-death care by 2020.

"A lot of people might be reluctant to think or talk about death and might find the whole thing icky, but for the most part people are quite intrigued," said Sen. Jamie Pedersen, a Democrat who is sponsoring the legislative bill.

He said the world has been re-shaped by innovation, and funerals should be no different.

In Washington state, dead bodies can either be cremated or buried, but Pedersen said both are damaging to the environment and expensive.

"Cremation takes a gigantic amount of energy … and with traditional burial they typically embalm the bodies by draining blood and adding chemicals," he said. "There are environmental issues with both methods."

Recomposition is a natural process that breaks down the body by placing it in a reusable vessel, covering it with wood chips and aerating it, which creates an environment for microbes and necessary bacteria.

The process takes about 30 days, according to Recompose, the Seattle-based company behind the idea.

The soil that is created from the body can either be given to the families or they can donate it to conservation land.

"Recomposition allows us to give back to the earth that supports us all our lives," the company claims on its website.

Recompose plans to charge around $5,000 for its services.

The company recently co-sponsored a study, the Recomposition Science Project, at Washington State University and found that composting human bodies is environmentally sound. The study included examining and adapting techniques that have been developed for composting livestock.

"It is an understandable tendency to limit the amount of time we spend contemplating our after-death choices, but environmental realities are pressing us to develop alternatives to chemical embalming, carbon-generating cremation and the massive land use requirements of traditional cemeteries," Recompose founder and CEO Katrina Spade said in a news release.

She added that, if every Washington state resident chose recomposition, it would save more than .5 million metric tons of CO2 within 10 years — enough to let 13 million seedlings grow into trees for 10 years.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, about 2.7 million people die annually in the U.S. More than half (53.5 percent) are cremated.

The National Funeral Directors Association, though, reports that more people are showing an interest in green burials.

Green burials, also called natural burials, minimize environmental impacts by not embalming, re-thinking burial containers and protecting the natural habitat with the goal of limiting waste and reducing the carbon footprint. Continue reading

In a paper going before Hastings District Council this week, manager Isak Bester brings several matters to the councillors' attention, including the extra time involved in cremating "oversize caskets".

Oversize caskets are used for anyone weighing more than 150kg.

While an average-sized person's casket takes about 2½ hours to cremate, an oversize one takes between 4½ hours and 5½ hours.

On average, the cost of a funeral is about $10,000.

Whether you opt for burial or cremation, it will have a significant impact on price.

Depending on the area, the price of a burial plot can range from $657 (central Hawke's Bay) to $6613 (North Shore Memorial Park, Auckland).

In addition, interment fees range from $319 (Taupo) to $1860 (Auckland).

Cremation is usually cheaper than burial. If you're using a council-owned crematorium, you'll pay between $525 and $900.

Privately owned crematoria can be more expensive, with services costing between $700 and $1100.

The Hastings District Council is proposing to charge an additional $200.00 for the cremation of a large person.

A council spokeswoman said between six and eight "oversize caskets" had been cremated at the crematorium in the past year.

That was out of about 700 a year.

Funeral Directors Association of New Zealand president Gary Taylor said he had not come across such a scheme before, and it was not something he supported.

"Anything that limits a family's ability to make a choice, we as an association would question.

"Funerals are all about choice. They're about families being able to make choices based on good information given to them by funeral directors and, if those decisions are going to be clouded, then I don't think that's a progressive step forward."

While the Catholic Church continues to prefer burial in the ground, it accepts cremation as an option.

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• nzcatholic.org
• stuff.co.nz
• consumer.org.nz
• Image: cbc.ca

Father Victor Roche from the Catholic Bishops Conference of PNG and the Solomon Islands said although they prefer burial, the church also accepts cremation.

But pastor Peter Dege from the True Church of Jesus Christ disagreed outright, saying there are about 35 Bible scriptures that highlighted burial as a Christian practice.

He said PNG as a Christian nation should not deviate from this tradition.

He also said that Port Moresby, let alone PNG as a whole, has a lot land that can be used as a burial ground.

However, the city authorities disagree. They say Port Moresby is running out of land for burials. There is only one public cemetery in the city and it is fast running out of space.

Nation Capital District Commission (NCDC) chief health surveyor Isoa More, who is in charge of the cemetery, said it was built in the 1960s and is halfway there right now, but sooner or later the 779-hectare land mass will no longer accommodate the dead.

The last patches of available land at the cemetery may be used up within several years.

Already burials are taking up the nearby hills that once were the natural boundaries of the flat area purposely designated for the public cemetery along the Sogeri Road.

In acknowledging the seriousness of the issue, city manager Leslie Alu said in the worse case scenario, the commission would, based on costs, pursue either cremation or keeping bodies in a locker system in a storage facility.

Health Minister, Sir Puka Temu, says cremation must be considered.

He said it was time to discuss whether to provide land or to go against tradition and consider the option of cremation.

"I think those are the issues that we really need to discuss."

Source

• Post Courier
• Post Courier
• Image: Eureka Street

New research among UK undertakers has shown that some of the most popular items put in coffins include packets of cigarettes, cans of beer or bags of lollies.

Many people are buried with their favourite football scarf, or accompanied by letters or teddy bears with deep personal value, according to a survey of funeral directors.

One undertaker recounted how one of their clients was even buried with a cardboard cut-out of the Dr Who actor David Tennant.

And, with echoes of the ancient Egyptian practice of mummifying cats, birds and crocodiles, one of the most common choices is to be buried alongside the cremated remains of a much-loved pet.

At the same time funeral directors reported a marked decline from the use of hymns and Christian readings amid a shift away from church funerals and a trend for more "personal" send-offs.

This echoes developments in wedding fashions.

The burial trends emerged from a survey of undertakers carried out as part of a wider study of funeral practices in Britain by the insurer SunLife.

The survey showed that 55 per cent of undertakers had noticed a decrease in the use of hymns at funerals in recent years.

And 52 per cent said the same of religious readings - a decline mirrored by increases in the use of secular music and poetry.

One in five said they had noticed a rise in the number of people asking to be buried with a specific item.

Dorset funeral director Anthony O'Hara said: "You see anything from someone's favourite perfume to cheques that will never be cashed, typically family photos to love letters from the war that have been kept for years."

"People now put mobile phones in with a message ‘ring us when you get there'."

But he said that while in ancient Egypt and other cultures people were buried with items representing their status, modern Britons are simply buried with things which represent them personally.

Sources

• The Telegraph
• Image: Ahmed Amirudden blog