When it comes to making final arrangements and how you want your body to be processed after death, there are a limited number of options. Essentially, these are traditional burial, cremation, or aquamation. Each one has their pros and cons, and depending on your family customs and beliefs, one of them may make more sense for you than the others. However, when you’re looking at the ecological impact of each one, it quickly becomes clear that aquamation services near New Hanover County, NC, are the “greenest” option by far.

When you look at everything that’s involved with traditional burial, it becomes more apparent why it isn’t such an eco-friendly process. First of all, burying a casket takes up a significant plot of land, which has eventually led to overcrowded cemeteries and increased land usage. Caskets are made from valuable resources like hard woods and metals, and they stay buried underground indefinitely, taking a very long time to break down, if they ever do. In addition to this, the chemicals used to treat the surface of the wood caskets are very harmful to the environment, as well as the chemicals used with embalming. Burial introduces these harmful toxins to the soil.

Next, you can consider cremation services. These are somewhat better for the environment than traditional burial, but still not perfect. The main issue is that greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide are released into the atmosphere during the process. Excess greenhouse gases are shown to contribute to accelerated climate change, and taking steps to lower emissions like these is a way to improve your impact on the environment.

Now, let’s take a look at aquamation services. These have the lowest impact of all on the environment, because it uses a mostly water-based process. The alkaline solution that is used during the hydrolysis is slowly broken down, and the final result is a liquid containing mostly water and some harmless natural substances like amino acids. Releasing this back into the water supply has no negative effect, and is perfectly safe. Because there is no fire involved, there are no carbon dioxide emissions to worry about. Finally, even if you choose to bury your loved one’s ashes, they will take up significantly less space than a full-sized casket, and will not emit any toxic chemicals into the soil. As you can see, aquamation services are significantly less impactful on the environment than either traditional burial or cremation.

In this day and age, we place more and more value on the environmental impact of the choices we make. We can even make eco-conscious decisions when it comes to our final arrangements and chosen method of disposition. By choosing aquamation services near New Hanover County, NC, you are taking responsible action against climate change. If you are considering what to do for a loved one, and they had a passion for the earth and protecting our planet, you may want to take a closer look at aquamation. That way, you can feel at peace knowing your loved one’s passions in life are translating to their final arrangements as well.