I saw this article below, and I have given some thought about this. My grandfather was a funeral director before he retired, and I am concerned about "green issues", so this struck me. Personally, I want to be cremated...

********************************************************************
Mays Landing woman gets 'Green funeral' in Estell Manor
By ERIC SCOTT CAMPBELL Staff Writer, 609-272-7227
Published: Thursday, July 17, 2008
http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/185/story/207357.html

ESTELL MANOR - No polish, no preservation, no speeches. It's no surprise Mildred Michel, lover of nature and simplicity, would want a "green burial" to commit her remains to the earth.
So her family gathered briefly Wednesday morning around a bare pine box in a corner plot of Atlantic County Veterans Cemetery at the Atlantic County Park in Estell Manor. Michel, 80, of Mays Landing, died Monday, and per her wishes, the funeral home had not embalmed her or placed her in an ornate and tightly sealed casket.

"We had talked about that these last few weeks. She was always a nature person," said Charles Michel, Mildred's son, after the funeral. "She didn't like to see futility and waste in things."

The green burial has emerged in recent years as a popular choice for those who wonder whether preservatives associated with bodies and caskets pollute.

The greenness of Michel's arrangements was dulled by a touch of gray; like most New Jersey graveyards, the veterans cemetery requires encasing a casket in a concrete vault. Ease of grounds maintenance motivates the policy - without a vault, soil sinks as the casket degrades - and despite requests from the family and the funeral home, no exception could be made.

Still, the veterans cemetery was the place for Mildred Michel. Her husband, who shares his son's name, is an Army veteran of World War II's Normandy invasion. When the hearse arrived, three generations of Michel men carried the casket to the plot. One family member read Psalm 23, then everyone laid a flower on the casket before it descended.

More important to the mother of three and grandmother of seven than environmental factors was that the burial arrangements suit her brood.

"She wanted a simple funeral with just family. She always hated open-casket funerals," considering them uncomfortable for children, Michel's son said.

Jim Dimiceli of Atwood Peterson O'Brien Funeral Home in Egg Harbor City provided the family some low-key direction for the brief ceremony. It was the first green burial for the Egg Harbor City funeral home since it began offering the option in January.

"It seemed like the way to go," Dimiceli said of the new policy. Customers who did not want an embalmment "wanted an alternative to cremation." The business has prearranged two more green burials.

The cost is "significantly cheaper" than a conventional funeral, Dimiceli said.

Though the younger Charles Michel was careful to say he did not think badly of those who adhere to tradition, he said of his parents, "They would rather see the money be spent on a park bench."

Both Charles Michels have decided on low-impact burials for themselves. Michel's husband wants to be cremated, then buried in his wife's plot, his son said.

On this morning, the rest of the wide, grassy cemetery was empty, save for a deer galloping a hundred yards away. The family seemed eager to leave the heat and stillness to remember Mildred Michel in a practical setting she'd prefer - however conscientious the burial, a grave site does not host lively conversation as well as a home does.

E-mail Eric Scott Campbell: ECampbell@pressofac.com