Photo Credit: Bête à Bon-Dieu
A pioneer church stands in an isolated community in Nova Scotia and beside it there is a pioneer cemetery. My ancestors began burying their dead on that side hill in the 1800’s. I helped my father and brother dig a grave for my grandfather back in the 80s. I don’t know when exactly people began placing plastic flower arrangements around the stones.
The caretaker spent decades tossing the ragged and displaced items down an embankment. I haven’t been there for a long time, but I can imagine that there are some improbable green foliage and blooms amid the ice covered bare shrubbery.
We all die. The environmental cost of what happens afterward is often beyond our control. You can ask for no flowers ahead of time. Professional floral arrangements nearly always have plastic parts even when the flowers are real. You can buy an eco-friendly coffin ahead of time. There is no law making embalming obligatory. Maybe you can also ask that any memorial service take place in a location that minimizes air travel for your loved ones. Asking for a locally grown tree in lieu of a stone marker could reduce the carbon footprint even further. Cremation has a big carbon footprint.
Green burial arrangements are available in many parts of the world. I would suggest that you look at them from the point of view of the people that you are leaving behind. I found an interesting piece written from the perspective of the son of a man who had arranged for a green burial service in Britain.
I have personally done absolutely nothing to prepare for this eventuality.
