I came across this article this morning about “green” burials at a cemetery in Fort Collins, Colorado, where it has devoted an acre to people wanting to be buried without being embalmed or being placed in a vault. I love the quote about how this method of burial returns to the days or yore (at least back to the days of the early settlers in Colorado) where you wrapped up grandma in a blanket and buried her (presuming that she had already passed away before burying her).
I guess I never quite understood why anyone would want his or her remains to last for eons after passing away, unless of course your entombed body held the clue to a large treasure or contained hints as to the secrets of a popular religion (I’m looking right at you Knights Templar). Whether you prefer the religious view of creation or the scientific view, the same idea goes for both – we were created from the small building blocks of life, and thus we should probably return back to the same small building blocks of life after we pass away.
Like most “green” trends this may be just another way to charge a premium for receiving a service labeled as responsible and sustainable. But at least at its core this method for burial refers back to this idea that most (if not all) of our approaches for living on this planet can be improved by understanding how nature solves our same problems. (Here’s a previous article I wrote going back to the idea of how our problems can be potentially solved by nature.)
And isn’t the point of creating a sustainable environment for our society to create objects, things, buildings, and everything else so that when these items are no longer required they break down into small building blocks again to be reused as something else? May everything we create follow the cycle of ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
Blue Architecture 
Funny you mention this. My entire family wants to be cremated and scattered on the ground somewhere (Mt. Bierstadt, my mom’s farm, etc.) so that we can hopefully help grow some plant life that will feed some animal life that will feed another animal life int he future. If someone thinks I was murdered and they’ll need to exhume me to look again…well, you shoulda done a better job on my autopsy in the first place, huh? Your prof doesn’t give you your final term paper back after you turn it in just ’cause you think you missed something; so let it be with Shorty.
(…”presuming that she had already passed away before burying her.” LOL!)
Agreed – interesting that this falls under the category of being “green” – Never occurred to me, although now that it is pointed out, I makes perfect sense! Well done!