The Environmental Impact of Funerals (Infographic)

Contributed by: qeepr.com

It is often said that death is a cycle whereupon the body, carbon and a person’s essence are returned to the earth. What this maxim forgets to include is 6 billion tons of concrete, 800,000 gallons of Formaldehyde, and enough wood in one year to build 4.6 million single family homes! In fact, you could drive almost 4,800 miles on the energy used to cremate one person! There is a lot of steel, wood, cement and fuel needed to accommodate the over 3.5 million deaths in North America each and every year.

While researching the types of funerary monuments you could place our QeepR Codes, we discovered green alternatives to traditional headstones offered by the funeral industry. Delving further into the need for a green alternative, we were shocked to discover the amount of resources and energy currently needed to support traditional funerals in North America. As our society has become more environmentally conscious, we have begun to make fundamental changes in our lives. We eat less meat, we buy biodegradable products, we invest in energy efficient household appliances and we change our unhealthy habits. Today, the option of green burials, biodegradable caskets, and donations to offset one’s carbon emissions are slowly gaining traction. Why should your green consciousness end when your life does?

Qeepr will be donating 10 cents for every  Facebook “share” of our post during the launch week of the infographic from Monday, March 24th at 1pm EST to March 28th at 5pm EST to The David Suzuki Foundation. You must share our post in order for the donation to be valid- we need to keep track of them somehow!