Sustainable Burial Alternatives
Faculty Mentor
Dascher, E.D.
Presentation Type
Poster
Start Date
5-8-2024 11:15 AM
End Date
5-8-2024 1:00 PM
Location
PUB NCR
Primary Discipline of Presentation
Geosciences
Abstract
Examining Proximity and Regional Availability of Sustainable Burial Alternatives: A Geospatial Analysis
Conventional modern burial practices require large amounts of resources while contributing to soil and water pollution. In the United States typical modern burials have been estimated to require 20 million board feet of hardwood, 58,500 metric tons of steel, 1.5 million metric tons of concrete, and 16.3 million liters of embalming fluid annually (Woodson 2014) and each individual burial can cost tens of thousands of dollars. Sustainable alternatives to modern burial include increasingly common practices such as cremation and newly available options including green burial, alkaline hydrolysis, and human composting. These options are toted as more sustainable alternatives to modern burial practices, but their availability and accessibility remain limited and are often encumbered by legal and political processes. The location, proximity, and regional availability of sustainable burial alternatives in Washington state were determined by analyzing ely, publicly available data in a geographic information system (GIS) This study also attempts to assess how well each option addresses the three tenets of sustainability using descriptive statistics and a content analysis. The number of locations offering a sustainable burial alternative in Washington state is limited, with most locations on the west side. The price point for the different options varies substantially. Most sustainable burial alternatives appear to do a better job of addressing environmental sustainability than economic or social sustainability. Economic and locational accessibility appear to be the main hurdles sustainable burial alternatives must address moving forward.
Recommended Citation
Ellingson, Elisabeth J., "Sustainable Burial Alternatives" (2024). 2024 Symposium. 5.
https://dc.ewu.edu/srcw_2024/ps_2024/p2_2024/5
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Sustainable Burial Alternatives
PUB NCR
Examining Proximity and Regional Availability of Sustainable Burial Alternatives: A Geospatial Analysis
Conventional modern burial practices require large amounts of resources while contributing to soil and water pollution. In the United States typical modern burials have been estimated to require 20 million board feet of hardwood, 58,500 metric tons of steel, 1.5 million metric tons of concrete, and 16.3 million liters of embalming fluid annually (Woodson 2014) and each individual burial can cost tens of thousands of dollars. Sustainable alternatives to modern burial include increasingly common practices such as cremation and newly available options including green burial, alkaline hydrolysis, and human composting. These options are toted as more sustainable alternatives to modern burial practices, but their availability and accessibility remain limited and are often encumbered by legal and political processes. The location, proximity, and regional availability of sustainable burial alternatives in Washington state were determined by analyzing ely, publicly available data in a geographic information system (GIS) This study also attempts to assess how well each option addresses the three tenets of sustainability using descriptive statistics and a content analysis. The number of locations offering a sustainable burial alternative in Washington state is limited, with most locations on the west side. The price point for the different options varies substantially. Most sustainable burial alternatives appear to do a better job of addressing environmental sustainability than economic or social sustainability. Economic and locational accessibility appear to be the main hurdles sustainable burial alternatives must address moving forward.
