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Unexpected Ways to Go Green
Photo: Jonathon Tercero
Going Green in the Afterlife
It seem a bit morbid to think about the cost and ecological impact of a funeral, but between embalming, buying a casket and many other fees and charges, the National Funeral Directors Association says most funerals cost more than $7,000.Joe Sehee of the Green Burial Council says typical funerals and burials are far from eco-friendly. "I recently calculated that we bury enough metal in caskets each year to rebuild the Golden Gate Bridge and so much reinforced concrete in burial vaults that we could build a two-lane highway from New York to Detroit," Sehee says. "We also bury, each year, more than 826,000 gallons of embalming fluid, which is comprised of a substance (formaldehyde) regarded as a known carcinogen by the World Health Organization and a probable one by our own EPA." By choosing a green burial, Sehee says you're simply taking part in the way most of humanity has been caring for its dead for thousands of years. Sehee shares some of the typical elements of a green burial:
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