The Environmental Working Group (EWG) released its 2025 “Dirty Dozen” and “Clean Fifteen” reports — lists of conventionally grown fruits and vegetables with the highest and lowest levels of pesticide residue.

After holding the top spot on the Dirty Dozen list for nine straight years, strawberries have been bumped to second place by spinach, now the most pesticide-contaminated produce. Like last year, dark leafy greens, grapes, and peaches round out the top five. New to this year’s Dirty Dozen? Blackberries and potatoes.

This year, EWG updated its methodology to include pesticide toxicity as a factor in the rankings. The updated methodology still measures the produce with the most pesticides, but it also looks at the fruits and veggies with the most potential health risks.

Take blueberries, for example, which landed at No. 11 on the Dirty Dozen list. Twelve percent of all blueberry samples contained phosmet, an organophosphate insecticide “that may be harmful to children’s developing brains,” said Alexis Temkin, PhD, vice president for science for EWG.

“The updated methodology reflects important aspects of pesticide exposure for people,” Dayna de Montagnac, MPH, EWG associate scientist, notes in a news release. “Our research takes into account the potency of each chemical and can help shoppers reduce their overall pesticide burden.”

Organic produce can be a good choice for reducing pesticide exposure, adds Temkin, but “it’s important to remember that everyone should eat plenty of fruits and vegetables however they are grown, including items on the Dirty Dozen.”

Here are EWG’s Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen lists for 2025:

For a full list of where various fruits and veggies rank, visit the EWG website.

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In September 2024, the State of California sued ExxonMobil, accusing one of the world’s largest petrochemical companies of “mis­leading the public on plastic’s recyclability and polluting California’s environment and communities.”

Upon filing the suit, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said, “For decades, ExxonMobil has been deceiving the public to convince us that plastic recycling could solve the plastic waste and pollution crisis when they clearly knew this wasn’t possible. ExxonMobil lied to further its record-breaking profits at the expense of our planet and possibly jeopardizing our health.”

Plastic requires anywhere from 20 to 500 or more years to degrade, so concerns about plastic waste are warranted. As of 2017 (the most ­recent year for which data is available), some 6.3 billion metric tons of plastic waste had been generated worldwide. In the United States, a mere 9 percent of plastic was recycled.

The lawsuit raises broader questions concerning what other items might not be truly recyclable — or are simply not being recycled.

“As a predictor of environmental goodness,
‘recyclability’ is about as reliable as a coin toss.”

“Just because an item is ‘recyclable’ does not mean that it will actually get recycled,” says David Allaway, senior policy analyst for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and coauthor of a compre­hensive 2020 meta-analysis of studies on packaging recycling. This is what we know about some other materials.

Paper and Glass: American ­domestic reclamation of paper and glass continues, although much of our sorted recyclables are now being dumped into landfills or ­incinerators ­because there aren’t enough facilities to recycle it all.

Aluminum: This metal is often lauded by industry sources as “infinitely recyclable.”

“Aluminum is one of the most recycled — and recyclable — materials in use today,” claims the Aluminum Association.

So, is aluminum a more sustainable choice? The answer is complex.

Aluminum production has a large carbon footprint. The metal is made from bauxite, which is strip-mined and then smelted, requiring massive amounts of water, heat, and energy. Smelting furnaces generate greenhouse gases, and producing an aluminum can is estimated to release twice as much carbon dioxide into the environment as making a plastic bottle.

Because aluminum doesn’t rust, it can be remelted and reused. Industry sources claim that recycling it requires only 5 percent of the energy needed to produce the metal — but that still bears an environmental price tag.

And then there’s human behavior. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, only about half of all aluminum beverage cans were recycled in 2018, the most recent year for which there is data.

“As a predictor of environmental goodness, ‘recyclability’ is about as reliable as a coin toss,” Allaway says. “Using fewer materials in the first place typically results in far greater environmental benefits than recycling or using ‘recyclable’ materials.”

This article originally appeared as “The Trouble With Recycling” in the July/August 2025 issue of Experience Life.

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“Wow, check out this little guy!”

I’m sitting on the stern of a solar-powered catamaran near Opal Reef, about 30 miles off the coast of Far North Queensland, preparing to jump into the Coral Sea. My husband and I are nearing the end of a three-week adventure through Australia, a trip that has included so many magical moments that it’s felt, at times, like fiction: throwing back fresh oysters with old friends in Melbourne, taking in a show at the Sydney Opera House, hiking through paperbark forests in Kakadu National Park.

And, incredibly, it’s not over yet. We’re here on our last day down under to snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef.

In the water next to me is marine biologist Kate Slaughter, one of the guides on our tour with Wavelength Reef Cruises. She’s holding a hand toward me as I struggle to squish my feet into my rubber fins. On the tip of her gloved finger is the teeniest crab I’ve ever seen, its little greenish shell about the size of a fruit fly. Behind her goggles, Slaughter’s eyes are lit up in wonder. I watch as she turns her hand over and over, marveling at her new friend scuttling around on her palm. Oh, I realize. She’s just as excited as I am.

My hair isn’t even wet yet. Soon, I’ll witness the whole world churning beneath us, the anemone and cuttlefish and, yes, the reef sharks, and dozens of other weird and wild creatures, arguably far more interesting than this practically microscopic crustacean.

Still, weeks later, this will be one of my most vivid memories of the day: this young scientist holding her hand out to me, utterly dazzled by the little life she’s stumbled upon.

The Heart of the Ocean

That exchange between science and tourism is part of what makes Wavelength special. It’s the only reef tour company in Queensland that’s owned and operated by local marine biologists — which means that when they’re not showing people like me around the outer Great Barrier Reef (GBR), they’re taking an active role in conservation and reef restoration.

“We do a lot of research on the boat,” Slaughter tells me. “We have weekly surveys to keep an eye on how things are changing in the short term, and more in-depth quarterly surveys.”

That work is aimed at improving coral health, which has been suffering for decades due to warming ocean temperatures and acidification. The Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network reports that between 2009 and 2018 we lost approximately 14 percent of the world’s coral — an amount greater than all the living coral in Australia’s reefs. In 2017, the United Nations estimated that 70 percent of reefs around the world were under threat.

These numbers represent much more than the loss of a beautiful tourist destination. Coral reefs are a vital indicator of overall ocean health — and the backbone of one of the most biodiverse ecosystems on Earth.

The GBR is the world’s largest living structure and the only organism that’s visible from space. Though coral reefs cover less than 1 percent of the sea floor, they’re home to nearly a quarter of all marine life, providing food, shelter, and breeding grounds for more than a million ocean species.

When I finally press my face under­water, it’s as though I can see them all at once: the parrotfish crunching coral between their jaws, the gobies sifting through the sand for critters to eat, the striped wrasses plucking parasites from the backs of sleepy-looking groupers. The sound is ­unbelievable — like a whole city bustling along its morning commute.

I swim through a school of blue damselfish; they sparkle around me like jewels. I spend several minutes floating above a giant clam the size of my office desk back home, watching the pulse of its body as it breathes in and out, like a heartbeat at the bottom of the sea.

A Growing Threat

What we think of as coral is actually limestone, a protective exoskeleton built by the tiny invertebrates that live inside. These coral polyps contain millions of photosynthetic algal cells that use light to provide the coral with oxygen and nutrients. The algae also produce the coral’s beautiful pigments, which vary depending on the spectrum and intensity of its light exposure.

When coral is stressed — by rising water temperatures, too much sunlight, or other changes in the ocean environment — it ejects its algal cells, losing both its color and its primary food source. Large-scale “bleaching” was once relatively rare, but the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association reported in May 2025 that nearly 84 percent of the world’s reefs had experienced heat stress since early 2023, accounting for the most widespread global bleaching event on record. It’s the fourth of its kind since 1998.

Slaughter first visited the GBR in the winter of 2016, following a particularly severe bleaching event throughout the northern section. “More than 80 percent of the reef experienced some degree of bleaching that summer, and I was swimming in the aftermath,” she says. “I was so excited to see the reef for the first time, and it was beautiful, but it was quite shocking to see it in that state.”

Corals have shown an incredible ability to repopulate and rebuild, she tells me, but they’re in a vulnerable ­position. As ocean temperatures continue to rise, the reef has less time to recover between bleaching events, putting the health of the entire ecosystem at risk.

Planting Hope

Despite these grave statistics, ­Slaughter says, there’s a lot of optimism in daily life on the GBR, where she and her colleagues are taking a hands-on approach to reef restoration, which they refer to as “assisted recovery.”

Our second stop of the day includes the nurseries on Opal Reef, which Wavelength grows in partnership with the University of Technology Sydney. This partnership is part of the Coral Nurture Program ­cofounded by Wavelength in 2018.

When corals break off from the reef due to storm or wave damage, they typically die in the sand. When they don’t, Slaughter and her colleagues try to capture and rehabilitate them at these nursery sites, which are open structures with lots of water flow to maximize coral growth.

“It’s just a middle ground for the corals to stay,” she explains. “And like a plant nursery, you can take cuttings from them.” They take these cuttings to bare spots on the reef and effectively replant them, using stainless-steel clips that Wavelength designed.

Over lunch on the boat, ­Slaughter holds up a coral clip for our group to see. It’s a simple tool, like a nail with a spring-loaded clamp on one side. But in its simplicity lies its brilliance: The clips require few additional tools and little training to use, and they represent a minimally invasive planting method that supports the reef’s natural ability to heal itself.

Over the last few years, the Coral Nurture Program has planted more than 100,000 coral fragments back onto the reef.

“We work alongside researchers at the University of Technology Sydney to ensure that we are using the most-effective methods possible,” Slaughter explains. “They’ve found that we have an 80 to 85 percent success rate, which is very strong. We would have been happy with 10.”

This is not simply about beautification, she tells me. The more coral cover and biodiversity a site has, the more resilient it will be to threats like rising ocean temperatures. It also means those corals can reproduce along with the rest of the reef.

Coral colonies typically spawn only once a year as the full moon rises, a nighttime phenomenon that ­Slaughter describes as something “like an upside-down snowstorm.” She and her colleagues have watched the corals that they personally planted onto the reef release all their reproductive cells into the water to be fertilized, eventually landing back on the reef to form new coral colonies.

“It’s the most profoundly moving experience I’ve ever had,” she says. “It means so much to know that we are assisting Mother Nature to maximize her perfect processes in the simplest way possible.”

A Yard Worth Tending

I took a double dose of nausea medication before we left the marina, certain I’d be seasick on the water, but I didn’t need it. We’re here on what the crew calls a “diamond day,” a synchrony of conditions that make for ideal snorkeling: low winds, minimal swell, plenty of sunshine for high visibility. My husband, who researched the weather and tidal patterns for weeks before selecting this day for our reef tour, is beside himself with glee.

“Did you see that blacktip?” he shouts to me on our final stop, a note of incredulity in his voice. He makes the sign the crew taught us for shark, one hand above his head like a dorsal fin. I’ve never seen him seem so much like the boy he once was, with a library full of books about the ocean and an encyclopedic knowledge of saltwater fish.

My vision blurs; I’ve been crying into my snorkel mask. I can’t believe how much life is teeming around us, how vibrant and real it all is. And how vulnerable.

Before we say goodbye, Slaughter tells me that she’s returned to those sites on the GBR that she first saw in 2016 — the bleached corals that ­inspired her career in marine biology — and some of them have bounced back. It’s not linear, she emphasizes, and much of the reef continues to struggle.

“Still,” she says, “I like to think the work we’re doing in our own backyard is helping on a small scale.”

The only way to save the reef is by reducing our reliance on fossil fuels and lowering our carbon emissions. Until then, ecologically sustainable tourism organizations like Wavelength can work to maintain these sites so they’re worth visiting — which funds more research and conservation efforts.

“That collaboration between science and tourism is really important,” Slaughter says. “It makes sense to work together because we have the same goal. We all want to see the reef flourish.”

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Death is a forgone conclusion of life — it is one thing we all have in common. What remains to be decided, and where we each have the opportunity for personalization, is everything that comes after the last breath.

Once there were two conventional funerary methods: embalming followed by a casket burial and fire cremation. Now, a growing number of options for greener disposition — the final arrangements for a body after death — are available across the United States. Natural deathcare alternatives, like green burials and water cremation, make it possible to align our postmortem choices with the environmentally conscious values we live by.

“Natural deathcare, at its heart, offers disposition options that are gentler on the earth,” says mortician Angela Woosley, MA, the founder of Inspired Journeys, a full-service, woman-owned deathcare provider. “Often they’re options that have been around for millennia — far longer than embalming and wood-casket burials, which were developed during the Civil War era and popularized by funeral homes in the 1950s.”

“Green” can mean a lot of things, Woosley explains, and the primary consideration is finding options that feel right for you, whether you’re making decisions around postmortem care for yourself or for a loved one. From that starting point, she advises thinking about eco-friendly disposition options on a spectrum.

On one end of the spectrum is the modern, conventional burial: embalming through a process that uses a formaldehyde-based chemical solution to slow decomposition, followed by burial in a lacquered wood or metal casket placed within a concrete outer burial container or vault and topped off with a granite or bronze grave marker. This combination can preserve the body and ward off full decomposition for many years.

On the other end of the spectrum, “the gentlest disposition on the earth is to open a hole in the ground in a cemetery by hand and place the person’s naked body in the hole,” Woosley describes. “That would make Mother Nature’s job easiest.”

The options between these funerary poles are nearly endless and highly customizable according to personal preferences and familial, cultural, and religious expectations.

For Sarah Kerr, PhD, the founder of the Centre for Sacred Deathcare, the logistics of greening a death unravel from a central question: “How green do you want to be?”

“Navigating death well is about tending the needs of the soul — spirit, consciousness, that which is more than the physical — as well as the body,” says Kerr. “The soul is healed by beauty. It resonates with relationship. It is fed by meaning. Meaning is at the heart of all of this. We’re always looking for the choice that has the most meaning. In all my work with clients, when we go through the array of choices and they really start scanning the options for what has the most meaning, there’s kind of a penny drop.”

Being open to the possibilities within the realm of green burials requires a willingness to question what we think we know about death and dying. “The dominant materialist approach to the world says we pop into existence, live in a straight line, and pop out of nature,” Kerr says.

“But our bodies and souls are part of nature. We exist in cycles just like everything else in the cosmos. Our bodies are formed, we live in them, and they return to the earth. Recognizing this cyclical existence in how we attend to the disposition of our bodies is a way to put ourselves back into alignment with nature, instead of fighting against it with concrete vaults.”

Just as there is no perfect way to live a green life, there is no perfectly green death. The following guide explores a few ways to make your, or your loved one’s, disposition not just more eco-friendly but also more aligned with the rest of your, or their, life and values. As you explore your options, pay attention to what resonates — the penny drop, as Kerr puts it — and don’t be afraid to make your death your own by planning and talking about it ahead of time.

Natural Burial

For most of human history, what we now call green, or natural, burial was simply considered “burial.” When someone died, the family, community, or other custodians of the dead would dig a shallow hole in the earth and place the shrouded, unembalmed body inside. The process was simple, unintentionally eco-friendly, and meaningful — an integral religious and cultural practice that became marginalized by colonization and modernization.

Today, green burials are an alternative to embalming fluids and concrete vaults, prioritizing decomposition over preservation, which can wreak havoc on the environment. Each year, conventional funerals in the United States require an estimated 20 million board feet of casket wood, 64,500 tons of steel, 1.6 million tons of concrete for burial vaults, and 4 million gallons of embalming fluid, a carcinogen. By eliminating the need for these materials, natural burials are often more eco-friendly and less expensive than conventional ones.

Each year, conventional funerals in the United States require an estimated 20 million board feet of casket wood, 64,500 tons of steel, 1.6 million tons of concrete for burial vaults, and 4 million gallons of embalming fluid, a carcinogen.

Green burials tend to be shallower than most conventional burials, at 3 to 4 feet rather than 5 to 6 feet; the soil closer to the surface is more amenable to decomposition. It can take two to 20 years for the body and bones to fully decompose, depending on factors like soil type and bacterial and moisture content.

Notably, green burials are legal in every state — but not every cemetery allows them. (If a cemetery requires the purchase of a casket and vault, that is their policy rather than the law.)

Green burials can be performed at green cemeteries, legally designated family burial plots, and conservation burial grounds, which are protected via conservation easements that prohibit development of the land and, often, restore the land with native plants and community management.

However, just because green burial is legal throughout the United States doesn’t mean there is a green burial ground established everywhere yet. Find a green cemetery in the United States or Canada here. To locate a conservation burial ground, visit the Conservation Burial Alliance. To learn about starting a green burial in your community, the Green Burial Council offers talking points.

Water Cremation

Water cremation — also known as aquamation or alkaline hydrolysis — is an alternative to flame, or fire, cremation.

Like flame cremation, water cremation is a process that reduces human remains to bone fragments. But instead of flame, it uses water and an alkali solution of potassium hydroxide that, when heated, dissolves the body, leaving behind bone fragments and a sterile liquid. Alkaline hydrolysis accelerates the natural decomposition process from the decades required of a conventional casket burial to hours.

During the process, the remains are placed in an airtight capsule with alkalized water, and through gentle water flow, all organic material is broken down. When the process is complete, the bone remains are collected, dried, and processed before being returned to the family.

Environmentally speaking, it’s estimated that water cremation can cut energy use by 90 percent and greenhouse-gas emissions by 35 percent. (Flame cremation produces about 1.04 billion pounds of carbon dioxide each year in the United States.) The effluent is returned to wastewater for processing, so the water is not wasted.

Environmentally speaking, it’s estimated that water cremation can cut energy use by 90 percent and greenhouse-gas emissions by 35 percent.

From a financial perspective, water costs about the same or slightly more than flame cremation.

The aquamation process yields about 20 to 30 percent more ashes. These are typically white or tan, while the ashes from flame cremation are grayer in color.

Water cremation is legal in about half the states, and even where it is legal, few facilities offer the service, making access an ongoing issue.

As such, it’s worth noting that alkaline hydrolysis is the greener cremation option, but fire cremation is considered more eco-friendly than conventional burial. Moreover, there are environmentally conscious steps you can take to make fire cremation an even greener option. (Again, “green” exists on a spectrum.)

The Order of the Good Death, a nonprofit dedicated to “building a meaningful, eco-friendly, and equitable end of life,” offers the following tips to green your fire cremation:

• Choose the crematory closest to you that has the newest equipment.
• Buy carbon offsets yourself or find a funeral home that purchases these for every cremation.
• Don’t buy funeral products that insist they are going to make a tree out of the ashes. (Learn more in “Greenwashing in Deathcare” below.)

Human Composting

Natural organic reduction (NOR), also known as human composting, supercharges the process of going from human to dirt. It uses a system similar to backyard composting, relying on microbes, oxygen, and plant matter to transform human remains into soil that can support new life. This process was developed and first offered by Katrina Spade through the public-benefit corporation Recompose. As legalization spreads, other companies have also begun providing NOR services.

During NOR, a body is laid in a large, individual vessel with straw, wood chips, and other natural materials. The decomposing process generates heat exceeding 131 degrees F, which kills viruses, bacteria, and pathogens. It also stabilizes heavy metals rather than volatilizing them, or releasing them into the atmosphere. (Testing has shown that the compost resulting from NOR is well below Environmental Protection Agency limits for heavy metals.)

Microorganisms involved in the decomposition process break down the smelly gases into water and CO₂. In addition, biofilters and mechanical ventilation are used to aerate the process and ensure there is no smell.

The process to transform the whole body into soil, including bones and teeth, takes approximately eight to 12 weeks.

[The rich compost] can be divided among family members and used to nurture plants, trees, and home gardens. It can also be donated to conservation spaces for rehabilitation of natural habitats. Because it produces such a large amount of compost, the carbon offset is significant.

When complete, you’re left with about one cubic yard of rich compost — almost enough to fill a compact pickup truck bed — that is indistinguishable from other compost. It can be divided among family members and used to nurture plants, trees, and home gardens. It can also be donated to conservation spaces for rehabilitation of natural habitats. Because it produces such a large amount of compost, the carbon offset is significant.

Still, notes Woosley, human composting was not designed to be a substitute for green burial. “It was meant to be an alternative for densely populated areas where green burial is not possible,” she emphasizes. “Imagine dying in Manhattan — you would have to go hours to get to a place where green burial is possible. NOR is, at its best, an urban green-burial option.”

Human composting is currently available in 11 states, with legalization in a 12th — California — slated to go into effect in 2027. In the states where NOR is legal, human composting facilities are licensed, highly regulated, and run by professionals, just like a crematorium or funeral home.

Burial at Sea

For as long as humans have been sailing, people have been buried at sea. Today, this ancient practice is legal and available in the United States. While it is most often associated with naval branches of the military, anyone can be “buried” in federally approved waters if they follow the guidelines set out by the EPA under the Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act (MPRSA) general permit.

Water burials of noncremated remains must take place at least three nautical miles from shore, in water that is at least 600 feet deep. The body is either placed in a weighted metal casket or shrouded in natural, biodegradable fabric weighted with stones, and then released from a boat to sink to the ocean floor. Cremated remains can be scattered with or without a biodegradable vessel in waters of any depth, as long as they’re taken three nautical miles from shore.

The MPRSA does not permit burial in rivers, lakes, or bays; if you want to legally scatter ashes in any of these bodies of water, check with your local officials. Additionally, the act does not permit floating pyres, so do not set a boat or other craft carrying a body on fire.

Burial at sea is considered an eco-friendly option if you don’t have to travel far to reach federally approved waters and you forgo embalming. It can also cost less than a conventional burial, especially if you have access to your own boat.

Greenwashing in Deathcare

As with any industry, “greenwashing” — the use of feel-good phrases or imagery that implies a product is good for the earth — is a legitimate concern in deathcare. Death tech, in particular, is a fascinating blend of promising innovation and clever marketing.

Mushroom burial suits and coffins, freeze-drying, burial pods, tree urns, memorial forests, reef-ball burials, ash-infused tattoo ink, lab-grown ash diamonds, and space burials are just a few examples of new, strange, technologically driven disposition options. (Many are still theoretical technologies and not yet available to consumers.)

“Different and unusual does not mean it’s green,” warns mortician Angela Woosley. “If you are concerned about greenwashing in your funeral options, I would simply ask: ‘Who benefits from this? Does this get me closer to the earth than putting a body in the hole in the ground?’”

If ecological soundness is fundamental to your decision-making process, “start with a hole in the ground and work your way back from that,” Woosley says. “You don’t need a tree capsule to become a tree. You don’t need a mushroom suit to become dirt. There are few products you need to purchase to get closer to Mother Earth. There are very few people you need to pay to get closer to being green.”

“Don’t buy funeral products that insist they are going to make a tree out of the ashes. For one thing, the tree doesn’t grow from the ashes because [the ashes] basically turn to cement when they get wet.”

According to The Order of the Good Death, a death-positive information clearinghouse, even the most green-sounding options are suspect: “Don’t buy funeral products that insist they are going to make a tree out of the ashes. For one thing, the tree doesn’t grow from the ashes because [the ashes] basically turn to cement when they get wet. Second, the product was most likely shipped, or needs to be shipped, to you, creating more of a carbon footprint.”

Moreover, Woosley adds that cremated remains are quite alkaline and have a high sodium content; adding cremains directly to the soil can stress the roots of your plant and hinder growth. (Burying cremains in a biodegradable urn or shroud and adding a neutralizing soil mix can help mitigate the environmental impact.)

Beyond greenwashing is the phenomenon of soul-washing. “As new options come into the market, they are often driven by capitalism rather than by soul,” says sacred deathcare guide Sarah Kerr.

“Just because a funeral home offers you something doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good fit,” Kerr continues. “If you are going to have someone’s ashes shot as fireworks into space, or compressed into diamonds, or even saved in a locket, know that all of those things have spiritual significance. It’s really important to consider if that’s the spiritual impact you want. Don’t choose something just because it’s on the menu and appeals to some kind of quick knee-jerk response. ‘Wouldn’t that be cool?’ is not a reason to do it. Seek out a deep knowing that this is the right choice.”

What to Do With Cremains

Cremated remains, or cremains, are the byproduct of flame and water cremation. They’re composed mainly of crushed bone fragments as well as small amounts of salts and other minerals and, sometimes, pieces of metal.

Cremains are not the person whose body they once made up. And yet, for many of us, cremains are a connection to those we have lost.

“Cremation is a way to get the person back to you,” says mortician Angela Woosley. “It’s easier for us to conceptualize the loss. It can be a comfort.”

“Returning cremated remains to the earth — by scattering them over land or water, or burying them in a biodegradable urn or shroud — is the most natural thing you can do with them. But, Woosley notes, it can also be one of the most difficult acts for some people to take because of its perceived finality.

As a result, it’s common to want to use cremains to memorialize a person and our relationship to them.

If your loved one was an avid home cook, you might choose to keep their ashes in, say, an antique soup tureen. Or, if you do pottery, you might make a ceramic urn to hold their remains. You might want to wear their ashes in a devotion pendant. Or turn the remains into stones that you can carry with you for a time and eventually leave behind in natural spaces.

Other, sometimes exorbitantly expensive, options for cremains include: shooting a tiny amount of them into space, turning them into synthetic diamonds, swirling them into glass art, or incorporating them into tattoos or into a vinyl record.

“These options aren’t necessarily considered green, neither are they necessarily soul-healing,” says sacred deathcare guide Sarah Kerr. “What is important is to choose what is meaningful to you as you adjust to your loss.”

Still, Kerr says, there is no obligation to do anything with the cremains other than return them to the earth. “When we’re conceived, the elements of this dimension start to coalesce around us,” she says. “All our lives, these elements make and remake our bodies. When we die, it’s time for these elements to be returned to the land. The task of our survivors is to fulfill that contract — to put us back into circulation so we can become something else.”

New commercial options can get in the way of that.

Adds Kerr: “If people are not feeling ready to return ashes to the earth, that’s a sign that they may need support and resources and time … in order to get to the place where they can actually let go. Because the person is gone. Holding onto their physical remains can be an attempt to keep them close. Moving forward in grief means transforming your relationship with their physical remains.”

She’s not suggesting that anyone bypass their grief and force the process by disposing of their loved one’s cremains before they’re ready. “There are real reasons why you might not be able to let go yet,” Kerr says. “Ask yourself: How can I get what I need?

“You’ll know what feels true when you find it.”

More Resources

Green Burial Council

The GBC is an educational nonprofit that offers guidance on green burial and how to find certified cemetery stewards, funeral professionals, and funerary product sellers who share a commitment to sustainable after-death options. Visit the GBC at: https://www.greenburialcouncil.org/.

Funeral Consumers Alliance

The FCA is a nonprofit dedicated to empowering people to choose simple, meaningful, affordable after-death arrangements. Find information about sustainable burial options, financial assistance, state-by-state rights, and more. Learn more at: https://funerals.org/.

The Order of the Good Death

The Order of the Good Death is a nonprofit committed to building a meaningful, eco-friendly, and equitable end of life. Find information about alternative deathcare options, the death-positive movement, deathcare legislation, and end-of-life resources and support at: https://www.orderofthegooddeath.com/.

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