Traditional v. Natural Burial
Caitlin Doughty of Order of the Good Death discusses the differences between natural & traditional (which has only been 'traditional' for less than 200 years) burial.
Seriously, the burial vault ($$$$) was designed to thwart grave robbing but since the average criminal is too lazy to dig up a grave nowadays, that ain't a problem. Now the vault is indeed used to keep the lawns looking nice.
Well, that & so you don't hit soft spots while strolling through the boneyard. That's always a little disconcerting - especially when your foot gets stuck in a hole.

You're Going to Burn
well, if you want - and more and more people do. Cremations are becoming more and more popular in America with over 40% of all deaths being handled by cremation. Just 50 years ago that number was 3.5%. Could all the cheesy zombie movies produced since then be a reason?
To deal with this change, Springfield's 240 acre Ferncliff Cemetery has installed a crematory - only the second in town.
As more and more people are opting out of burial other options for dealing with your dead ass are being explored like alkaline hydrolysis (liquifying). Now we need to look at open air cremation as well. With about 110,000 dead Buckeyes a year, we should have every available option for our remains.

Frogtown Noose Son article here.

Wormfood
While Ohio refuses to allow open air cremation & water cremation, a new body disposal system has been created by Swedish entrepreneur Susanne Wiigh-Mäsak. She touts it as eco-friendly as her freeze drying process turns the body into fertilizer.

"This ecological alternative to cremation or conventional burial involves freezing the body to minus 18 degrees before being submerged in liquid nitrogen. The then very brittle corpse is turned into a fine powder by a short vibration of specific amplitude, removing the 70 per cent water component from the remains by so-called freeze drying followed by burial in a biodegradable box made from corn starch in a shallow grave."

How long will Ohio drag it's heels on this one? Another chance to reduce government intrusion in our lives & offer Ohioans more choice & allow more products for the funeral industry likely to go unheeded.

Irish Times story here.