[Huntress]

Are you sure this isn't from the Onion?

[SmithL]

How much would it have cost to rent a wood chipper for an hour or so?

[Argus]

My mother and I, both animal lovers, didn't mind, but my brother found this shockingly disrespectful to the human dead.

How did these free spirits ever raise such a speciesist?

[mtbopfuyn]

What total idiots. In any other case, I'd say they got what they deserved, but this is a final resting place so that might not be appropriate.

I dunno about "green" funerals, but I know many an undertaker who refuses to be embalmed and hermetically sealed caskets inside in those whatchacallits big metal boxes (?) because gases develop and bodies tend to, well... A good read (seriously, a good read) is "Caring for the Dead" which tells the truth about funeral ripoffs and the laws in each state.

[mcshot]

My wish is to go "green" as well but the desires of the living take precedent, so who knows.

[Doomonyou]

I'm gonna be bronzed.

[gov_bean_ counter]

Caveat emptor.

[Straight Vermonter]

For a 'service' we kept things simple and personal and free from religion...

How very enlightened of you.

[McGavin999]

Put a walnut in their mouth before you bury them and then you don't have to worry about planting a tree. The ancient Celts would do that with walnuts, acorns etc.

[HairOfTheDog]

Claire, you're about as sharp as a bowling ball.

You want a green funeral with no frills, and yet you want the services of a professional funeral home. Which is it Claire? We buried my mother's ashes ourselves, and we brought our own shovel to plant the tree. Because the cemetery is an unmanaged one, we went ourselves to water the tree if it needed water. The things she wants cost the bucks she didn't want to spend.

[HairOfTheDog]

I hadn't anticipated, for example, having to ring the gravedigger while my father was still alive (just), so that the man would be able to dig the hole in time. I was sobbing so uncontrollably that I had to call back three times.

This part cracks me up a bit... She thinks it was bad for her, imagine how dad felt!

Dad: I'm not dead yet!
Claire: You'll be stone dead in a moment!
Dad: I think I'm getting better!

[JRios1968]

One more reason I will request cremation and dispersal of my ashes. No need to have my family be tied to a specific spot for remembering or honoring me.

[kittycatonline.com]

"Green funeral? We got those!"

[managusta]

Time to start the "Mafia Green Funeral Service".Not only can MGFS provide the cardboard, bamboo casket, a moss-lined woven willow nest or even a sack.

We can also offer the classic rolled up carpet,the individually separated ziplock bags and our most popular the 100% re-cyclable crushed car block.

[Slings and Arrows]

You know you'll go to h-ll for laughing at this, but you'll laugh anyway.

[Irish_Thatcherite]

Not only would it avoid rare tropical hardwoods being felled and carted halfway around the world

Hey.. I work with tropical hardwoods!!

[Drew68]

If cardboard's not your style, you could be buried in a bamboo casket, a moss-lined woven willow nest or even a sack.

I really don't mind the idea of a cloth burial shroud. I mean, it seems like a waste to saddle my family with the $5,000-$10,000 expense of a fine wood casket that will rot away in the ground. Digging a hole, tossing me in and planting a tree really doesn't sound like that bad of an idea.

[elkfersupper]

I intend to be ground into dust and incinerated by the SWAT team's bulldozer and tank-mounted flamethrower.

[Not A Snowbird]

I don't much care what my husband decides to do with me after I depart.

Maybe he could have me cremated and scattered from a private plane over Safeco Field or something.

While the Mariners are out of town, of course. Batter up!

[supercat]

Another thing we all liked about green burials was that, instead of an impersonal marble headstone, a tree would be planted on my dad's grave

While I'm not particularly keen on marble (granite and bronze both seem like better materials), I don't see how a carved or cast marker is more impersonal than a tree. Not that there's anything wrong with trees, but markers do serve a real purpose.

BTW, I think embalming is a scam, and if the government weren't in the funeral industry's pocket it would be possible to have viewings of refrigerated caskets without need for embalming.