Burial in the cheapest coffin, which is wood that is usually covered with an attractive fabric. It comes in blue and pink.

Good question, I have pondered this and would love to know the answer! Cremation takes a lot of energy, but we really don't have room for everyone to take up a burial space, especially in concentrated population areas.
Obviously a "prarie burial" is best, just wrapped in a cloth and go back to the ground. If you have enough acreage, you can still do that legally in Oregon. But most of us don't have that option.

On the surface, burial would be a better choice, but the overly elaborate burial traditions in the first world are very wasteful. In many places (particularly China), burial as it's typically practiced is unrealistic because of space considerations.

I agree with Mahendra Sharma and Lara in which organ donating could take place and as gruesome as it sounds whatever is left should be creamated. In sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ, we commend to Almighty God our brother ; and we commit his body to the ground; earth to earth; ashes to ashes, dust to dust. The Lord bless him and keep him, the Lord make his face to shine upon him and be gracious unto him and give him peace. Amen.

Why should we waste good earth on burial plots? it should be farmed, while we would want to honor our family members we should bow to the fact we are going to need every available space to feed the world..
Beside we are only a shell, and when our spirits leave our body's shell that it is, we are left with only a shell

How about composting? I'd love to think my minerals and molecules went to feed the next generation by enriching the soil where they grow their food.

Since methane is about 20 times worse than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas, we should consider how much of the methane produced by a decomposing corpse would eventually be released into the air. Then compare the effects of this methane to the effects of the carbon dioxide liberated by cremation. Consider too that methane is much less persistent but spontaneously oxidizes into carbon dioxide and water vapor.

Green burial: No chemicals, no coffin, no burial marker. While we are on the topic of life and death... the biggest thing any of us can do to reduce greenhouse emissions is limit family size to 0, 1 or 2 children. No technology can save us from overpopulation. The earth can sustain around 2 billion. We are now around 6.6 billion, living off the capital of the earth's resources. If we reduce our population through family planning, we can each live a little higher quality life, and still have our planet survive.

Humans pollute their bodies with tons of chemicals and medications. The burial crates are to protect the environment & ground water from contamination. I'm all for cremation!

How about "being an organ donor" or "donating your body to science"? The ultimate in recycling...

I think "burial folks" should let us go back to pine wooden boxes or even bamboo. They'rerenewable faster than other woods.They should also stop the cement liners altogether and let the worms eat, breed and enrich the soil. When we're dead we won't know the timetable.Cremation probably pollutes the air. Love you Al and condradulations!

Burial of coarse but the key is not to use a coffin. Then all the minerals and chemicals that were once you are returned to the natural cycle.

As the saying goes 'dust to dust'.... dig a hole near a tree and place me (what is left of me after my organs are donated) there to rest.

I read once about an Indian burial (not sure tribe or country) where they just placed the body on a palette or stretcher, and it was laid high up in a tree (this was in a dry climate, but over time a wet climate would do the same). The sun dried the body, birds picked at it, and what was left eventually became dust. That is truly returning the body to nature, the palette or stretcher could be something biodegradable. There is the idea of cremation creates pollution, but I definitely think that the typical American burial costs way more in carbon units, what about the construction of the coffin, the transportation of it, the ways bodies are embalmed, etc. All use up resources. Some university or organization should actually take up a study of the differences in carbon imprints of burial methods. Surely America's typical must rank among the highest. I want to just roast nicely in the desert sun, thank you! :)

At the latest at this point I do not care to bee greener.

cremation is killing all the microbs that we carry with us. So, it is cleaner. But method of cremation should be improved to retain all the pollution
that we have in our body... not easy...

It seems we don't have a choice here in my hometown at least. If you have a funeral or burial policy, and need to or want to use the paid up insurance to defray the cost of the service or funeral, then you must be embalmed, not cremated. Some sort of court fight occurred here in Alabama, USA to create this situation. So if we are of limited resources, we must follow what the state says we can do. Also, body recycling is not an option for some people for moral, religious, or medical reasons.

To make my earlier comment clearer. A burial policy in Alabama does not cover cremation. In fact, any deviation from what is covered in the policy voids the entire policy.

As per old indian system burning is greener but it should be in dry discs made from cowdung wastage as ther will not be space on the earth to bury. Platform must be 6feet in length, 2.5 feet in width and 1.5-2 feet in height for placing the body over it. After this body should be fired for burning. In India this is practised since thousands of years.

I think the comments I have read on this blog are crazy and insensitive. You people think these ways of being buried are enviormential friendly........You should realize all the cases of AIDS and the diseases that go with this virus. Thee AIDS virus, (I have been told that cannot live outside of the body after a certain temperature, but other diseases that do.
So do all of the chemicals used to treat his horrific hospital stay.These things stay in the tissues of the body, even after embalming.

I am amazed at the ignorance of these cheapscates that want to go the cheaper easier way to bury or be burid. These are more contaminating to the enviroment than burial in a coffin and concete vault.

I speak from experience of a son having who died of AIDS, and through some disgusting manuevers,someone buried him in a box without a vault. Now that he is buried on a hill, and the chemicals he was embalmed with goes into neighbors well, I feel this is raises serious questions about the well water that is about 200 feet on a down hill slope from this neighboring well.This is a real health risk of this water source.These chemicals and viruses wash down where children play. We believe he is buried very shallow.

Through legal procedures we have tried to get our son moved and put into a vault, but it is the nuts who think like these people on this blog who have made it seem okay to bury someone you love in a disgusting manner.

Hey I'm a vegetarian and have been eating organig food for at least ten years and I dont smoke, drink booze or coffee and I would hate to waste such great meat on the worms or burning so I want my friends to have a bbq and eat me!I can quarantee I would be much better than any comercially raised cow.
Peace and love!

When my dad was dying he said he wanted to be cremated, even before he was dying he told me and my brother it was his wish to be cremated. you cannot just ignore wishes or burial or cremation. yeh one might be greener than the other, but then everything is a pollutate somehow.

In chinese culture and practice, old traditional style I prefer burial, it is where, everyone can see and respect you in near future. But today many people originated prefer cremation, it is because wasted space used for burial. But, the space used for burial may be a green lung. I may have a choice to choose in near future - hopefully the place of green lung is not used for any construction purpose, I may not be there to see. Even burial ground servers some purpose afterall there are some greens here and there, grasscutters do jobs during the festive season when people visit the graves to remember the deed of the dead. It has its purpose also, without this, I doubt we also have lost our culture.

We most certanly think cremation is the best alternative! What's the point with a traditional burial? It's just too old-fashioned. Not hipp at all. Couldn't someone write about this new, freezing thing?

Cremation using fossil fuels releases at least twice your weight in CO2 into the air, and wastes the energy tied up in your organic molecules. Using biofuel is not greatly 'greener'.

E.Y. Yarburg (1898-1981) wrote:-

Man he eat the barracuda,
Barracuda eat the bass
Bass he eat the little flounder,
'Cause the flounder lower class.
Little flounder eat the sardine
That's nature's plan.
Sardine eat the little worm,
Little worm eat man.

Deep sea burial has much to recommend it.

In woodland burials, biodegradable coffins are used - cardboard, recycled pine, intricately woven wicker or banana leaves (these are gorgeous!). Remains must not be embalmed - there is no legal requirement for embalming (in Scotland anyway). There are no cement linings in the graves - only one coffin in each grave. Memorial flowers left after a funeral cannot be wrapped in cellophane and no traditional grave markers allowed.
This type of burial is the most green -Cremation uses far too much fuel and although less fuel is used to burn eco coffins - it's still a lot. In time thw woodland site becomes a haven for wildlife and flora and a tranquil and peaceful place to visit.

cremation will not contaminate the environment. The Ashes with hot heat
process destroys all the germs and the
ashes also will enrich the soil.Could
be considered organ donor but all dependes the reason of death, if it is
from a contaminated desease the best is
cremation.

I think that Joan Walker (previous) has a really good idea. Because I have been wondering how on earth I was going to answer this question. Some of you have said that it's good to let our bodies or ashes enrich the soil around our burial place, and some say that the junk we put into our bodies and/or the act of cremating itself is bad for the environment. But Joan mentioned spreading ashes onto water. I think that's a good way to do it- but aren't water ecosystems more sensitive that land? I think I will have to go with cremation in the end, though, since graveyards take up so much valuable space on this earth.

I think that the best way is cremation, especially if you get made into one of those eternal reef things.
They're made of a mixture of the person's remains and cement and they are ceremoniously lowered into the ocean when all of the families are watching.
These are great because they are environmentally self-sustainable and they help provide a natural habitat for fish.

I think the Jewish way is the best way. Burial without embalming so no chemicals are put in the soil in a 100% wooden box that's completely biodegradable.

I'm 100% for organ donation... are you really going to need them where you are going?? Or, if you're interested, donate your body to scientific research... think of the lives you could save and enhance!! cremation seems like the greener choice... no casket, cement, nasty chemicals...

I'd go with cremation because if you just bury someone, it takes a long time for their body to decompose. And, plus, I'd also feel a little guilty to just leave a loved one's body lying in its grave while being pecked at by varmint(sorry to gross y'all out!)
Cremation is environmentally friendly if you do it the "eco-safe" way that doesn't release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
By the way, this is just my opinion.

I would like to be buried in a simple wooden box, no embalming fluids. Embalming was started during the Civil war to preserve soldiers' corpses so that they could be taken to their homes for burial. Transportation was slow then. Embalming seems unnecessary now, we have refrigeration and if corpses need to be transported, it can be done quickly. I would like to be buried some place where the land in which I am placed is reused. The problem is, people don't want to come across human remains while using land that has been useds a burial site. I'm not sure how to solve this problem.

I think that the burial is a lot better because it can help other insects or animals though it might take a lot of space than burning.

I'm so green, I'm just not going to die.
But a pizza oven sounds good for me!

Both of the 2 major ways to dispose of the deceased seem to present problems for our planet. I suppose it comes down to what, based on an educated argument, you think is better.

I'd go with cremation (after the recycling of my organs to donors or science), for several reasons: cultural affiliation, takes up less space, less chemical leachate, it takes longer for a body to naturally decompose, fewer legal issues (as opposed to getting permission for a truly chemical free burial), and a lower risk of spreading disease.

Let's not forget, as society moves to become more eco-friendly (its happening folks), those who deal in the death trade (funeral parlours, par example), will feel the pressure to adopt cleaner practices, like retrfitting cremation oven exhausts with better emission filters.

On the other hand, I can see why people may prefer burial.

Death is a sensitive issue, so as long as we're as responsible as we can be, either option, it's almost six of one, half-dozen of the other. Almost.

Frankly, you'll make more of an environmental impression on your lifetime than you will in your death, so act wisely while you're alive.

Donate organs, then cremate.

I would say burial, if you're in a biodegradable coffin.

I am not a very green person and even though I am at the tender age of 27, I have considered what I will do once I die.

I would prefer to be cremated. No only because it preserves space, but your life should be cherished as a memory in your family hearts and not preserved in a grave. No one will visit you at the cemetary everyday.

How often do you visit your love ones at the cemetary once they've passed versus the amount of times you think about them throughout the day?

For those of you who choose to go with a wooden casket, the monks of the New Melleray monastery in Dubuque County, IOWA make caskets. They use local wood. A sustainable method.www.newmelleray.org/

Recently a friend of mine passed away, and we offered her son a cremation urn. It was a perfect white marble vase style urn, and exactly what this woman reflected to us. Many people touched the urn and had a special connection to her through it. She was a good woman, good friend, and a knowledgeable and active member of our mountain side community. I will miss our walks in the morning with my dogs.
We were glad to memorialize our friend through the urn we choose. Cremation urns provide the special opportunity to give a loved one a special resting place just as unique as they were in life.India's hindus cremate as well, but scatter in the their loved ones cremains in their sacred rivers.For urns for your loved one, to go: Cremation Urns

burial,of course,is more logical than cremation.I think the former should be seen as the process of the earth.we should keep in our minds that we human beings can be something useful for this earth if buried.Let's promote the idea of cremation.thanks

I think cremation is greener or donate your organs.

Donate organs, burial in COMPACT green container without any chemicals,buried in mass grave areas (I think small islands like Bermuda have 'Family ' gravesites where the bodies are buried one on top another as time goes by, with trees planted once the space is filled. No marker ,no burning ,no preservatives!

Cremation is much quicker, and I believe it's much greener. My mother was cremated (at her request) and there was a huge number of attendents for her "Wake", so Dad and I drove to TN two weeks after her "funeral" to scatter her ashes in the Tennessee mountains (her request).
He also wants to be cremated, and I have always wanted that as well. Unless humans leave out the crap shoved into the dead and just leave the bodies in or on the ground and let the animals and insects feast, using a coffin does not help the environment.

We should all be burried at sea (without coffins) so that our bodies become part of the energy cycle, from which he have removed so much. Who is in favour?

in my religion (zoroastrianism) a long time ago, u wldnt bury urself or anything, the body wld be put on this high platform, somwer on top of a place so it cldnt be seen by so much by public. then it wld be up to the vultures and other creatures to eat it up for breakfast, lunch or dinner. this is a lot faster and cleaner. and that will make less ppl eat as many animal meat (cuz who knows, ur frend cld be in there)!
now its not allowed in iran cuz now iran's a muslim country. but i wld like that to change.
thanks.

we should all of us take our bodies to shark ,as will be giving back to mother nature

If burning cowdung does not produce any harmful substance then Cremation is best suited as done by traditional Indian Hindus, and if burial does not create soil pollution, and would decompose quickly and effectively then burial is best suited.B ut cremation using electricity does not add to any pollution as far as i know, so it is best suited

Those people who choose cremation or who are interested in having their passing provide a postive benefit to the environment should look at www.eternalreefs.com. These are amazing envinomental contributions that will create a lasting benefit for future generations. They provide a permanent living leagcy and a place to vist. Families and individuals who choose this memorial become much more envolved with marine environmenatl issues.