Eco-Friendly Burials in Australia Through The Use of GPS Tracking Units
24 Nov 2015Could it be true there is a plan in Australia that just might change the way we meet our maker, theoretically?
In a huge Australian cemetery near Dandenong called the Bunurong Memorial Park, ground was broken. It was said that in a year, it is expected to host a different type of burial known as woodland and forest burials. This is where the body of the deceased is covered in a light covering or shroud, without the use of a coffin or headstone for marking the burial spot.
Rather than the traditional type of burial, after nature takes its course, families of the deceased will have the ability to track the body through the use of dime-size GPS tracker, which is protected in a capsule made of plastic and affixed to the burial covering or shroud.
The GPS tracking device stays embedded in the ground as the body and shroud decompose, allowing visitors to use an app on a smartphone or other electronic device to find the burial site. At the time of publication, there was no comment made by the cemetery.
It is thought that these types of burials are more environmentally friendly as opposed to being buried in a coffin or embalmed with chemicals. This green burial movement has gained some popularity in the United States and other countries.
According to Southwest Portland’s, Larry Hurst, people don’t need to be pickled with embalming fluid, which he went on to describe as being ‘poison in the ground’. He also said it wasn’t necessary to encase the bodies of the deceased in concrete vaults or use grave liners which are insisted upon by many cemeteries to keep the ground from sinking over time.
Although this green movement is new and still in its early stages, people working in the business of death are beginning to notice an increased interest of those who initially leaned towards cremation. Essentially, to them it’s a better option, allowing the body of their loved ones to be returned to the elements; much like compost.
The logic in this change is that while in past generations, the goal was to keep the deceased protected from the elements of nature by encasing them in coffins, today, however, some people are more open and becoming in favor of returning their loved one’s remains to the Earth sooner.
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