It may seem small among the decisions people have to make as they face the end of their life, but what happens to their bodies can make a significant difference to the final cost inflicted on the environment.<\/p>\n
In many Western countries, cremation is the most common method<\/a> of deathcare \u2013 chosen by about three-quarters of Australians \u2013 but it\u2019s arguably the most environmentally damaging.<\/p>\n Sustainability certifiers PlanetMark found a typical gas cremation releases a plume equivalent to 125kg of carbon dioxide. That includes methane, nitrous oxides, sulphur dioxide and other volatile organic compounds and particles. If you have mercury tooth fillings, they get vaporised too. Other industry figures<\/a> suggest the emissions could be higher.<\/p>\n It is about the same amount of pollution as driving a Ford Ranger from Melbourne to Canberra.<\/p>\n Traditional burials, the other common choice, leach chemicals into the ground when deeply buried bodies and treated timber coffins break down. After-burial site maintenance can also release greenhouse gases.<\/p>\n \u201cBasically the entirety of our history as an Australian society, we\u2019ve only really done two things and that was seen as entirely sufficient,\u201d says Dr Kate Falconer, an Australian death law researcher now based at University College Cork in Ireland.<\/p>\n But Australians are increasingly open to alternative farewells, according to Dr Domenic Trimboli, an architect and urban planner at Curtin University, who has researched funerary practices and spaces in Australia.<\/p>\n \u201cMany people, regardless of age, had thought about what they wanted to have happen to them, and there was definitely a curiosity about alternatives.\u201d<\/p>\n Cleaner options<\/p>\n Minimalist natural burials and alternative methods can be gentler on the environment.<\/p>\n In a natural burial, there is minimal preparation or embalming. The deceased is usually buried in a natural-fibre cloth shroud or biodegradable coffin at a shallow depth, and decomposes into the surrounding soil over a decade. It results in negligible release of greenhouse gas and returns the body to the earth.<\/p>\n New cremation technologies are also taking off. Aquamation, also known as resomation or alkaline hydrolysis, is a cremation-like process that uses water rather than fire<\/a>. Immersed in an alkaline solution, the body breaks down within hours, leaving the bones to be powdered and returned to the family \u2014 a more \u201cpure\u201d decomposition than gas cremation, which mingles the coffin and body as ash.<\/p>\n Though not widely available outside the US, terramation \u2013 human composting \u2013 is being considered elsewhere, including Australia, where the independent MP Alex Greenwich this week introduced a bill to NSW parliament<\/a> to allow the process. It involves placing the body in a coffin-like vessel alongside organic material, microbes or fungi. The body is slowly turned into compost.<\/p>\n Sustainable caskets<\/p>\n While alternative deathcare methods are slowly emerging, traditional methods can be made more sustainable.<\/p>\n \u201cSmaller decisions on a larger scale, I think, would make a really significant difference,\u201d Falconer says.<\/p>\n Take coffins. \u201cI don\u2019t think a lot of people realise how bad coffins are,\u201d Falconer says.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of coffins might be wood, but they\u2019re often coated in lacquer, they\u2019ve got plastic linings, the handles are all plastic \u2026 as a rule [coffins] are generally imported.\u201d<\/p>\n The biggest impediment to more sustainable deathcare is a tendency for Australians to leave funeral decisions until after a loved one dies, says Kate Falconer. Photograph: Jessica Hromas\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Swapping a lacquered coffin with plastic parts for untreated pine, cardboard or wicker basket reduces emissions from a burial.<\/p>\n