Portland, Ore. - Cynthia Beal wants to be an Oregon cherry tree after she dies. She has everything to make it happen — a body, a burial site and a biodegradable coffin.

"It is composting at its best," said Beal, owner of The Natural Burial Company, which will sell a variety of eco-friendly burial products when it opens in January, including the Ecopod, a kayak-shaped coffin made out of recycled newspapers.

Biodegradable coffins are part of a larger trend toward "natural" burials, which require no formaldehyde embalming, cement vaults, chemical lawn treatments or laminated caskets.

Cremation was long considered more environmentally friendly than burials in graveyards, but its use of fossil fuels has raised concerns.

There are already specialty funerals, featuring caskets with custom paint jobs and urns with the insignia of a favorite team. Industry experts say eco-friendly funerals are just an extension of such personalized end-of-life planning.

Biodegradable containers cost from around $100 for a basic cardboard box up to more than $3,000 for a handcrafted, hand-painted model.
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They do this in my city, people get buried in Eco-coffins and instead of a head stone they plant a tree, i guess its a good idea because the tree feeds off your body, and so you live on, in a funny sorta way, the chain of life continues?

That's interesting stevewinn...Sort of like the "circle of life"......Nice idea.......

have i missed something, coffins are made from wood aren't they? so where's the harm! but i love the tree instead of the grave stone, WICKED what tree though do i want feeding off my a*** bonsai tree, it would grow 1000ft tall feeding off my ass

I think it's a very good idea

She's a Hippy, I want to be shot into space. Or made into a diamond.

No, not usually.

I want an eco friendly end also. I plan on being cremated and molded into an artificial coral segment instead of inground burial. I always wanted to live in the ocean.

I always wanted to be just tossed out in the woods somewhere naked. That's the ultimate in green funerals.

Time will come when the only green spaces left on this earth are golf courses and cemetaries, hmm?

I hope my death leaves no remains, that I'm eaten by a bear or some wolves.

um. ouch. why don't we just ease you into some magma.

Well, that would hurt tremendously.

I do want to die fighting, though. Felling alive.

Like at the age of 80 or so, on a solo backpacking trip, eaten by a bear. That would be ideal.

examples please. and keep the pyramids out of it

"Biodegradable containers cost from around $100 for a basic cardboard box up to more than $3,000 for a handcrafted, hand-painted model."

Yeah! I'm sure they just find a box in a back alley and charge your relatives for it.

...and the handcraft boxes is the print-outs on the side of the box that says "^This side up^"

I watched a show with a tidbit on the $100 cardboard ones. Apparently they are utter pieces of crap. I would still rather a headstone then a tree. I dunno, a tree just seems too impersonal. And I can see why cremation is a concern for co2 emissions, imagine the temperature it actually takes to turn a body to dust. Now imagine the amount of fuel that takes.

Definitely something to think about........but my family will probably put me in a tin box and dump it in a hole somewhere.

They do sell cardboard coffins don't they? I'm sure I've read it before. I have this conversation with my mum whereby I tell her I'd be happy to be buried in a cardboard box, no flowers (except off my children), no after show party - I can't stand them, doesn't everybody?

My mum is horrified by this, she likes the pomp and grandeur of a "good send off", she unashamedly wants the neighbours to know what a good hearse we got for her, what a good spread she had, etc. she'll get it too.