The Last Dream

A casket is different from a coffin in that it is a rectangle shape that is not tapered to the body. The lid of a casket usually hinged so it can be opened for a viewing. Coffins and caskets are usually made from wood or steel and can be lined with copper or zinc to help preserve the body.

For those people who have an environmental conscience, a funeral represents an area where decisions must be weighed against their environmental consequences. Fortunately there are choices that are environmentally friendly, and yet meet the needs of death and dying in the Western culture.

In Australia today 128,500 people die each year and 54 percent of people are cremated, and this figure is increasing by 0.5 percent each year. Our attitudes to death, dying, the disposal of dead bodies and funerals are legacies of our history.

Most bodies are either buried or burnt. With rising population levels and densities both methods have become problematic. In ecological terms burial is environmentally friendly because it recycles the dead body on an organic level, feeding soil biota, but burial needs space, and space being at a premium, is expensive. It is also environmentally wasteful, as most urban areas are on 'better' land that has some potential for crop production. This forces agriculture to move, not only further away (increasing transport costs), but onto less productive land. Burials also present the environmental risk of contaminating the water table.

Because cremation converts the body to inorganic material it is wasteful. The actual process of cremation requires a large amount of fuel – usually non renewable in Western countries. Emissions from cremations can contain noxious substances.

Although burial and cremation are the most common methods of disposing of the dead body, practices from other cultures are sometimes more environmentally friendly. Cultures living close to the sea have often had a tradition of sea burial – thus providing a food source for marine scavengers. Some cultures living close to large rivers have developed a tradition of floating the bodies downstream on rafts – providing food for birds, and aquatic life, but at the same time increasing health risks of disease, polluting the water and increasing eutrophication levels. Pastoralists living in semideserts often leave bodies for the hyenas and vultures.

'You can have money piled to the ceiling but the size of your funeral is still going to depend on the weather.' Chuck Tanner

Whether the dead body is buried or cremated, often one of the biggest expenses is the coffin. This cost is not just economic. Coffins can impact the environment by the use of timber from non-sustainable sources, by the use of chipboard with dangerous toxins in the glues and formaldehyde, and by lining many with metals that pollute our environment. There are alternatives to traditional construction materials. The eco-coffins are made of a range of different materials, including recycled cardboard (reinforced to safeguard our sensibilities), a paper mache-like material, plant materials and natural glues. These coffins are biodegradable as well as being made from environmentally friendly materials.