- Green cremations are a new aspect of a larger trend that has been developing for several decades.
- Cremation is now the most common alternative to the traditional funeral. In some regions of the country, cremation is chosen for as many as 80% of funerals.
- Traditional cremation is the reduction of the body to bone fragments through the application of intense heat. The fragments are then finely processed so that they can be placed in an urn for final disposition. A greener cremation takes additional steps to make the process more eco-friendly.
- Eco-friendly cremations (also known as eco-cremations and natural cremations) require no harmful chemicals like those used in the embalming process. Cremation with scattering is even less wasteful: no casket or space in the ground is required.
- Cremation uses far fewer resources than almost any other disposition option but it does have an environmental impact. Cremation requires the burning of fossil fuels, and some older cremation facilities can use significantly more energy compared to newer ones. Mercury is also emitted when a person with dental amalgam fillings is cremated, but the development of effective filtration devices and the decline in use of dental amalgam fillings will eventually mitigate this problem.
- The most environmentally harmful process during a cremation is the release of fossil fuels into the atmosphere during the cremation. Wooden caskets take longer to burn, in turn this creates more harmful gasses for a longer period of time. Here at Simply Cremations we recommend our cardboard cremation containers. Our cardboard containers burn within minutes, speeding the cremation process to ensure the minimal amount of fossil fuels are expelled into the atmosphere.