KU Today & Tomorrow 2021

Page 16

Saying Goodbye with Eco-Friendly Burials Study shows many older environmentalists have not thought about end-of-life plans and don’t know about green burials.

T

raditional burial in a graveyard has environmental costs. Graves can take up valuable land, leak embalming chemicals, and involve nonbiodegradable materials like concrete, as well as the plastic and steel that make up many caskets. But the other mainstream option — cremation — releases dangerous chemicals and greenhouse gases into the environment.

ARTICLE BY Brendan Lynch, KU News Service

So, what’s an environmentalist to do when making plans for the end of life? A new study from the University of Kansas in the journal Mortality (published online, January 2021; doi. org/10.1080/13576275.2021.1878121) details how older environmentalists consider death care and how likely they are to choose “green” burials and other eco-friendly options.


Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.