What to Do With Your Dead Body

A question I am often asked at the funeral home at various points between death and final resting place is “What happens to the body now?”

When we go on death calls, family will ask us where we are taking grandma. After a memorial in the chapel, a school friend will ask us if we take the body to the cemetery or if that’s someone else’s job. At an attended cremation, the next of kin will ask how the body breaks down in the retort.

In general, people are always concerned with “What happens to the body? Where does it go?” and it is a perfectly valid question for a number of reasons. Some people are very detail oriented or need to have each step laid out in order to understand the process, and others are simply curious. We may not know what comes after we die, but we can definitely learn what will happen to our bodies. There are some “traditional” ways of a body being put to rest, but over the past few decades there have been advancements for the sake of being more eco-conscious. We will begin with the standard and go forward.

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Direct Burial

A direct burial involves a handful of necessary items– a cemetery or graveyard (they are, in fact, different), a casket, and a vault. Many people don’t realize that when a casket is lowered into the grave, there is a stainless steel vault to seal it into. The vault is to ensure that no one can get into the casket to steal anything, as well as protect the casket from the weight of the earth and any weight (from humans, machines, or otherwise) that might go over top of it. They also help keep the earth from settling oddly around the casket which in turn keeps the cemetery grounds relatively level.

When people say they want to be buried, typically that means your casket will be lowered into a vault and buried. In some cases, you can have your casket interred in a crypt, which is a wall that caskets are placed in and the spot is sealed at the front, usually with a marble plaque. Either way, your body and casket are protectively sealed away and protected from the elements and decay. Similar to a mummy’s sarcophagus in a pyramid, someone may excavate your burial vault in an archeological dig in the far far future. In theory, your casket will still be in excellent condition (your own condition, however, I couldn’t say).

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Direct Cremation

Direct cremation has gone up as people’s preference over the past few decades, with now just over half of Americans planning for and being cremated. More and more people have been choosing cremation as it is more eco-conscious than burial and is more cost effective. While being buried involves paying gravediggers, the funeral home, a casket company, and sometimes more, the money for a cremation usually stops at the funeral home (and/or crematory) due to it being much more of a straightforward process– and you could even buy an urn off of amazon. Cremation saves on labour costs and energy costs and, overall, tends to involve a lot less fuss and details which is why more and more folks are inclined to that route.

However, traditional cremation in which you go into a retort and have your body reduced to ash by flame is really just the lesser of two evils in terms of traditional methods. Now there are even more ways for a body to be "cremated".

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Green Burial

Green burial has been gaining recognition as a greener alternative to traditional burial. This process could be seen as being buried "the old fashioned way", as it involved little more than a hole in the ground and a simple something to protect the body. Usually the body will be wrapped in a shroud or placed in a decompostable container before being buried in the earth. The most important aspect is that whatever covers the body is not harmful to the environment and doesn't inhibit the natural decomposition of the body. It's also important to plan ahead for green burials and make sure the body is left natural and not embalmed, or else it can't be placed in the earth for a green burial (there are some green embalming fluids that are available as an alternative to help with preservation before the burial, but they aren't always widely accessible to funeral homes).

The process of green burial is very natural and even allows people to be buried in family plots or close to home, not just in a "green cemetery". But green burials are also a long decomposition process and end up making land uneven, due to the shifting of the earth as the body returns to the soil.

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Aquamation or Liquid Cremation

This form of cremation may sound strange, but it is a very effective and upcoming way to reduce a body. Rather than your body being put into a retort (or crematory oven), it is put in a stainless steel chamber with a heated solution of water and sodium hydroxide. Thus begins the process known as alkaline hydrolysis, where the solution combined with atmospheric pressure in the chamber begin to break down the flesh of the body. Over the course of several hours, the body is broken down and reduced to various liquids which leave nothing but bones behind.

Then the bones are taken and ground down to a powder, which is then returned to the family. This process ultimately yields the same results as fire reducing body and bones to ash, but has a reduced carbon footprint, has low energy costs, and the liquids the body is reduced to are non-toxic to the earth. With this process, you can return to the earth and water it and your family still gets something to remember you by.

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Human Composting

While the name of this process alone may sound bizarre (and like someone covering up a crime), it is in fact a very real and fascinating means of green burial. This process involves no steel vaults, no embalming chemicals, none of the aspects of burial that negatively impact the earth while still allowing you to return to it. There are only a handful os states that have made this process available to the funeral industry, but it is an option that is growing more and more favorable.

Human composting begins with the body being laid in a container that can reach temperatures ideal for composting (130°F-160°F); carbon rich materials such as wood chips, alfalfa, and straw are also put in this container. Then the container is sealed. Microbes and organisms that naturally occur in the decomposition of the body alongside those existing in the plant materials get to work in reducing everything to compostable materials. Once the process has finished, a sample is taken to make sure the compost is healthy and safe for use. If the compost is safe for use, then the organization providing this green alternative will put the compost to use. Many of them will use the compost to plant trees in memory of the person who passed, which is not only great for the environment but gives family and friends a lovely place to visit and remember their loved one, as opposed to visiting a traditional grave.