City considers 'green' burials

This, I would classify as, “What the heck?!?!?!”
City considers 'green' burials
Plan offers to reduce person's 'carbon footprint'
Posted: August 12, 20089:58 pm Eastern
WorldNetDaily

Colorado Springs officials are considering "green burials" that would enable the dead to reduce their carbon footprint.

According to the Colorado Springs Gazette, city officials are reviewing options for management of their city-owned cemeteries, and one of the proposals is to have "green" burials.

Officials say the burials would cost significantly less and "provide a back-to-earth experience" for people who seek to reduce their carbon footprint after their death.

The report said under the proposal bodies would be buried in bags, wicker baskets or egg-carton boxes, lowering customer costs. It also would reduce city expenses, because the plots would require no sprinkler systems or water and little mowing.

The burials would reduce greatly the need for manufactured goods, such as caskets, saving the resources and energy used to make them. They also would allow the biodegrading process to occur beneath native grasses and wildflowers, so little lawn maintenance would be required, officials said.

The idea was considered as part of an overall review of the city's cemeteries, which have adequate burial space for many years to come but need $3.5 million in equipment and improvements, such as vehicles, irrigation systems and fencing, the Gazette report said.