Greenies Can RIP With Eco-Friendly Funerals

Cardboard caskets, natural burial sites catch on in US
By Caroline Zimmerman,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 20, 2008 5:35 PM CDT
Greenies Can RIP With Eco-Friendly Funerals
Potential customers look at coffins made of bio-degradable material at a 'green funeral' exhibition in London, Saturday April 19, 2008.    (Associated Press)

Greenies who bought organic in life can become more organic in death, the AP reports. Brits have enjoyed the eco-friendly funeral for years, but now cardboard coffins and natural fibers for corpses are catching on Stateside. "People are trying to think about what's the best way to live and with that, what's the best way to die," one funeral director said.

Eco-funerals aren't more expensive, either: Nixing the marble tombstone, switching from formaldehyde to dry ice, and trading in limos for smaller cars can easily trim the bill. So far the main problems are aesthetic, one burial ground director said: A cardboard coffin is "not terribly easy to handle and if it's wet, they don't look their best either." (More funeral stories.)

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