Turn Cremains/Ashes Into A Tree !!

Modern Farmer

From the Ashes: 3 Companies That’ll Turn Cremains into a Tree

By Andrew Amelinckx on April 29, 2016

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What we now consider traditional burials (but are, in fact, a little more than 100 years old) are pretty unfriendly to the environment. Embalming fluid is nasty stuff: it contains formaldehyde, which is a carcinogen. More than 4.8 million gallons of embalming fluid are buried each year in the U.S. alone. Additionally, metal caskets don’t biodegrade, concrete vaults use up natural resources to manufacture, and some cemeteries use herbicides to keep their lawns looking tidy.

If you or your loved ones want to be environmentally friendly, even in death, you have a few options and considerations: Green burials—the practice of “returning a person to the earth” by burying in a biodegradable casket, without embalming fluid  or a concrete vault—is legal in all 50 states but saddled with rules and regulations governing how and where you can bury. Not all cemeteries allow green burials (but you can find one near you here). And when deciding between burial versus cremation, consider the issue of dwindling cemetery space: It’s estimated that between 2024 and 2042, about 76 million Americans will reach the average life expectancy of 78 years; when they pass on, they’ll require burial space roughly the size of Las Vegas.

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For people who choose cremation, several companies have created biodegradable urns that, when combined with specific soil mixtures, use cremains to help grow a tree. In a way, these products hark back to a time before the creation of the “traditional” burial system—when our ancestors’ remains went straight into the ground and provided sustenance for all sorts of plant life— but in a 21st century, space-saving, environmentally-friendly manner. Here are three companies that have their own particular products to help you continue the cycle of life.

Bios Urn and Incube

Bios, a Spanish company who wants to “convert cemeteries into forests,” recently raised more than €73,000 (about $82,800) through a Kickstarter campaign for their new product, the Bios Incube. This gadget pairs with the company’s existing biodegradable urn and tree-growing kit to allow you to grow a seedling in your home, rather than find a burial spot. Incube is smart: It tracks your plant’s temperature, electrical conductivity, solar irradiance, and soil humidity; using that data, it automatically waters. Roger Moliné, the COO and co-founder, tells Modern Farmer in an email says he came up with the idea after receiving requests from a number of customers who complained of limited cemetery space or having no place to plant their biodegradable urn.
The Incube can water the tree for up to 20 days before you need to refill it, and connects to your smartphone or tablet through an app to keep you alerted to what’s happening with your seedling.
Bios will begin taking pre-orders next month on their website and expects to start shipping the Incube to their Kickstarter funders by the end of the year, with a general release tentatively scheduled for sometime in 2018. The company is also working on creating Bios Incube centers where people can have their trees incubated for them.
“We really believe it can help people who live in big cities with limited space for burials, and for those who want to take on an active role in growing something from just a seed,” says Moliné. “We decided it was okay to bring the process of death and dying up to speed with 21st-century demands and requests. We also wanted to create something that was environmentally friendly, and could encourage even those who don’t garden or aren’t used to growing plants or trees, to take on a new activity and find peace in a different practice.”
Bios Urn: $145 (choice of a five types of trees, including maple, pine, ash, gingko, and beech)
Bios Incube: Tentatively priced at $550 (includes a free Bios Urn)

The Bios Incube. Courtesy of Bios

The Living Urn

Based in Colorado, The Living Urn’s system includes a biodegradable urn packaged in a handmade bamboo container, with a seedling, wood chips, a proprietary soil mix, and an ash-neutralizing agent that helps counteract the chemical properties of cremated remains to produce a balanced growing environment. According to co-founder Mark Brewer, the company provides seedlings—with a wide range of between 15 and 20 choices of tree types based on the customer’s growing zone—instead of seeds, which helps ensure you’ll actually be able to grow the tree, as seed germination can be tricky for amateurs.
Founded by three life-long friends, the idea for the product was initially conceived by another of the company’s partners, Brandon Patty, following the death of a friend. Patty wanted to honor his memory by planting a tree using his cremains. A few years later the three entrepreneurs, who all had an environmentalist bent, began working on the idea, with the help of arborists, soil scientists, and eco-friendly manufacturers. After about a year-and-a-half, the trio created to The Living Urn. They have also added a version for pets.
“We feel lucky to have such a great product and are excited to get the word out and have more and more families be made aware of this uplifting option that’s available to them,” says Brewer in an email.
The Living Urn: $135 (with choice of tree) or $119 without seedling  
Pet version: $119 (with choice of tree) or $99 without seedling 

The Living Urn. Courtesy of  The Living Urn

EterniTrees Biodegradable Urn 

EterniTrees, which is based in Oregon, uses a proprietary growing medium that helps release beneficial plant nutrients found in cremated ashes. (On their own, cremains aren’t actually plant friendly.) The urn holds about a cup of ashes so there’s the option of planting several trees using the cremains, scattering some of the ashes, or memorializing them in some other way. The company offers a choice of around 15 tree types based on your growing area, as well as a “Personal Choice” urn that allows you to locally source the seeds you choose to germinate.
If the seed doesn’t grow or an animal destroys the seedling, the company will send you more seeds and growing medium, or an actual seedling if seasonable available, for free.
Eternitrees Biodegradable Urn: $98 (includes choice of tree type)
Pet Version: $98 (includes choice of tree type)

The Eternitrees biodegradable urn. Courtesy of Eternitrees

http://modernfarmer.com/2016/04/ashes-ashes-turn-cremains-tree/

Would You Like To Spend Eternity With Your Pet In A Pet Cemetery?

Owners being buried with pets, sometimes in pet cemeteries

Illustration: SUE SYRNICK / Staff Artist, Photographs: istockphoto.com

GALLERY: Owners being buried with pets, sometimes in pet cemeteries

TERRI AKMAN, FOR THE INQUIRER

POSTED: Wednesday, June 5, 2013, 9:00 AM

Elaine Braslow, a retired elementary schoolteacher, hopes to live a very long life. But whenever her time is up, she looks forward to spending eternity with her beloved cat, Cutee, and cherished dog, Bentley.
Although she and her husband currently have five dogs and four cats, it's those two - now dead and cremated - that she can't part with.
"I have the remains in the house," said the Cherry Hill resident. "My family has assured me that they will carry out my wishes to place them in my coffin."
Braslow and her husband already have prepaid plots in a cemetery in North Jersey. "It's also very important to me to be buried with my dad and other relatives," she said. With her cat and dog, the whole family will ultimately rest together.

Braslow is not alone. About 62 percent of U.S. households own pets, spending more than $55 billion on them annually, an amount that reflects pets' status as family members. For some owners, that means sharing a cemetery plot.
"It's a growing trend," said Coleen Ellis, cochair of the Pet Loss Professionals Alliance (PLPA). "I wish I had a dime for every time I heard someone say, 'You know I love the pet more than I love my husband, wife, brother, sister.' . . . As the nuclear family has changed, the human-animal bond has increased significantly, so when we consider our final resting place, many pet parents say they want to be with them."
In most cases, state law prohibits burying pets in human cemeteries, said Poul Lemasters, a funeral director and lawyer who consults in the death-care profession. Yet funeral directors allow discretion when it comes to placing personal objects in people's coffins. "They will tell you 'not a day goes by when I don't put an urn of an animal into the casket of a human being secretly for a family,' " Ellis said. "So, while it's been going on for a very long time, the trend is becoming more recognized where people are getting permission to do it."
Demand for joint burials is such that people are now being buried in pet cemeteries - where human cremains can be buried. "Cremation is deemed the final disposition for people, so the family can do whatever they want with those cremated remains," explained Debra Bjorling, owner of Hamilton Pet Meadow Memorial Park and Crematory in Hamilton, N.J.
The Hamilton pet cemetery began burying human cremains alongside their pets about eight years ago, when Bjorling was approached by two sisters whose mother's last wish was to be buried with her pets.
"They told me she liked pets more than people," Bjorling said.
After a graveside ceremony that included a spiritual service, the box containing the cremains of the woman and the two boxes with her pet remains were buried side by side.
For customers it makes economic sense: Hamilton charges by the plot, not the soul. Body burials (the body of the pet and the cremains of the owner) are $1,650; burying the cremains of pet and owner costs $500, which includes perpetual care fees.
Bjorling suggests that people interested in being buried in pet cemeteries do their homework first: A perpetual care fund requires the cemetery always be maintained, and a deed restriction assures the bodies buried will never be disturbed. Pennsylvania and New Jersey law requires both for cemeteries.
If you want to spend eternity with your pet without being cremated, Hillcrest Memorial Park in Hermitage, Pa., is one of the few places in the country legally able to bury humans and pets together. (Pet cemeteries like Hamilton can bury only cremains.) Originally a human cemetery, its operators applied for a license to add a pet cemetery, which opened in 2007, and that led to the creation of a third section that same year allowing for the burial of pets and humans together.
"The city adjusted the definition of a cemetery to a place for the burial of humans and/or pets," said Tom Flynn, Hillcrest president and devoted dog owner. "The light just went off in my head. This is really where we feel the market is."
Longer than a standard grave, these plots are 3 feet by 10 feet. If the pets die first, they will be buried under the grave marker. "Once the person passes away and is buried, we can also put two more pets into the same grave on top of the person," Flynn explains. "For someone who, over the period of time, has had a lot of pets, we can accommodate them whether they be in the grave with the person or in a contiguous grave."
Roberta "Birdie" Barkovich and her sister, Ramona Vargo, both plan to be buried near their beloved pets. "My sister is going to be buried next to our three collies who are buried in Hillcrest's people and pet section right now," explained Barkovich, who lives in nearby Farrell, in northwestern Pennsylvania. "I'm going to be buried in the people section next to my parents, not too far from the dogs."
The dogs were not cremated - each body was wrapped in a blanket in its own casket with pictures of family members inside. "We had a viewing for Glory and Noah, mother and son collies who died three days apart," Barkovich said. "We were able to go in and say goodbye to them before they were buried."
Despite the recession, Flynn said burials (and presales) have grown from about two per month to 10 since 2007. By the end of this year, he estimates he will have taken care of a total of at least 700 families.
Considering that burial rates are declining, that's good business. "For us, 20 years ago the human cremation rate was approximately 10 percent, and today it's over 40 percent," Flynn said. A recent study by PLPA found that 99 percent of pets are cremated today, while only 1 percent are buried. So burying pets and people together, for which plots cost $795 to $995, adds a new revenue stream.
Although some cemeteries are too old to have their codicils changed, newer cemeteries are taking notice. Already a trendsetter in the cemetery business as Pennsylvania's first green cemetery, Penn Forest Natural Burial Park in Verona, Pa., near Pittsburgh, is preparing to open a new section for the burial of people with their pets. Green burials don't use formaldehyde-based embalming or burial vaults.
"People who want a green burial seem to like animals and are interested in pet burial," reasoned owner Peter McQuillin. "Combining the idea of environmentally friendly with pet burial will make us the first green cemetery for burying pets."
Obviously, it's a trend with legs. Yet whatever the kind of burial, the foundations for the movement are the same. People want to be buried with their loved ones.
Sisters Barkovich and Vargo married their husbands seven years ago when they were in their early 50s. "We never had children and we loved our animals like they were our children," Barkovich said.

Terri AkmanFor The Inquirer

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/living/pets/20130605_Owners_being_buried_with_pets__sometimes_in_pet_cemeteries.html#8R32xVgoCUo7moG7.99