Cremation or Burial

Sooner or later, all humans are presented with a difficult and important choice. How do you choose to dispose of your earthly remains once your eternal soul has shuffled off its mortal coil?

Cremation is growing in popularity thanks to practicality and cost concerns as well as spiritual, philosophical, and environmental inclinations.

Here’s a look at some of the beliefs that have been contributing to this popularity:

1. Cremation is perceived as better for the environment. Actually, it isn’t. Cremation uses a tremendous amount of fossil fuels, and releases toxins — including mercury — into the air. This misconception about cremation as more eco-friendly probably stems from environmental opposition to embalming and metal caskets.
2. There isn’t enough land for cemeteries. Actually, there is. Those living in urban centers and paying high rents might understandably feel that there isn’t any land available. But even if every American death was followed by burial, it would take more than 10,000 years just to use up one percent of America’s landmass. And, presumably, few if any cemeteries would survive that long anyway. Burials take up very little land, and there is plenty available — usually within an hour or two of urban centers.
3. Decomposition gives people the creeps. Actually, while decomposition is hardly a sight to behold, the cremation process is neither quick nor clean. An average body burns in the oven for 1.5–2 hours, with bigger bodies lasting even longer. During the process, the body moves back and forth, crackles and sizzles. The brain bubbles. Think of the stench of burning hair and flesh. Once the oven has finished its gruesome task, the remains are not yet “ashes.” What is left in the oven are actually dry bone fragments. They are manually swept out and placed into a machine where they are ground up for about 20 minutes, in order to fit the remains into a small urn. The point is not whether burial or cremation is more disgusting. The point is that cremation is not pleasant — it is a loud, violent, repulsive and artificial process. On the other hand, decomposition, while not pretty, is a biological process, and the natural way of every living being.
4. Cremation is cheaper. For many, the decision of whether to be buried or cremated comes down to cost. While popular belief posits cremation as the cheaper option, when all of the hidden costs are added in, cremations are just as expensive as burials.

According to AngiesList.com, the average burial cost has increased more than 15 times in the past half century — from $708 in 1960, to around $12,000 in 2014. Here’s the breakdown of the costs:

• Basic service fee: $1,975
• Removal and transfer of body to funeral home: $285
• Body preparation: $225
• Embalming: $695
• Basic memorial printed package: $150
• Use of service car to transport flowers and other memorabilia: $130
• Use of facility and staff for viewing and funeral: $895
• Use of hearse: $295
• Burial vault: $1,298
• Grave plot: $1,000
• Headstone: $1,500
• Opening and closing fees: $1,200
• Metal casket: $2,395

Cremations can be simple and inexpensive, or as elaborate as a proper burial. Caring.com, a website that helps people learn how to take care of their aging friends and family, says that the “cost of cremation typically ranges from $2,000 to $4,000 if arranged through a funeral home, and from $1,500 to $3,000 if arranged directly through a crematory.”

Nevada’s Simple Cremation is a “simple cremation provider” that offers a simple plan for $499. It includes a mandatory state funeral fee of $10, staff services to manage the funeral process, pick-up and care of the deceased, preparation of legal documents and paperwork with the health department, the cremation casket, the cremation of the deceased and a simple white box urn, which can be upgraded to $699 for a granite or earth urn.

The low cost might explain why cremation is more popular Nevada than other states. A slate.com map of the United States showing “Cremation in America: A State by State Map” shows cremation is most popular in western states from California to Washington to Arizona, and also the far Northeast. Burial is still preferred in the Midwest, the South and the Southeast, with the exception of Florida.

Projections for 2015 from the National Funeral Directors Association have burial and cremation running about dead even, so to speak. Cremations passed burial with 48.2 percent choosing cremation, while burials were projected to be 45.8 percent. Projecting to 2030, the NFDA predicts that 70.6 percent of all ceremonies will be cremations, while only 23.2 percent will go with the more traditional burial.

Those number doesn’t add up to 100 percent. Mummification, plastination and other alternatives to burial and cremation are coming into vogue (see sidebar, which doesn’t include dumping in the Thames or eating as the Monty Python players propose in “The Undertaker“).

But it’s clear that after many centuries of taboo, cremation is gaining popularity. Whether the deciding decedents are motivated by philosophy or practicality, ecology or egotism, leaving your earthly means scattered to the winds or in an urn on the mantelpiece appears to be the burning desire of 21st century moderns.