More and more people are turning to cremation instead of burial for a variety of environmental reasons. Many believe that burial would be more environmentally conscious since no air pollution is created and no fossil fuels are burned but in the long term, the green alternative is still cremation.
Each year, cemeteries across the United States bury approximately:
In addition, thousands of gallons of water, pesticides and fuel are used to maintain cemeteries and their grounds, which drastically increase the environmental impact of a traditional burial.
The carbon footprint of a cremation fluctuates based on several variables. Body, size, time of day and container all determine the amount of energy used in the process.
To make the cremation process more friendly to the environment and to our beautiful skies here in the Truckee Meadows, we closely schedule our cremations whenever possible to avoid using extra energy preheating the crematories and we strive to avoid incinerating plastic, rubber or other products that might release toxic smoke into the atmosphere.