How to Become a Tree
January 21, 2026 at 10:39PMWe’ve recommended notable stories on eco-friendly death in recent years. For Aeon, Hannah Gould and Georgina Robinson explore emerging practices within the green death care movement—from woodland burial to natural organic reduction to alkaline hydrolysis. While the idea of a gentler return to the earth is desirable to some people, the environmental claims from companies in this nascent industry need a deeper look. “[C]loser examination of contemporary eco-death thodtechnologies reveals that this dream is not so easily realised,” they write. “It remains plagued by a lack of reliable empirical evidence, inflated corporate claims, and unequal access to new technologies. Can we truly hope to die green? Or is it all just greenwashing?”
This research shows how complicated it can be to declare one body-disposal method the ‘greenest’. A method might perform well in one category (such as carbon emissions) but poorly in another (such as water consumption). It might perform well in one location but not another. And there can be hidden environmental impacts built into a specific technology’s supply chain or its real-world application. For example, it’s hard to determine the emissions associated with growing the necessary alfalfa, straw or other organic matter used for human composting in NOR. Even alkaline hydrolysis, typically identified as the most ecologically friendly method, has uncertainties: researchers rarely consider the emissions involved in transporting the deceased to a facility that offers this form of burial. In most cases, a crematorium or cemetery will likely be much closer.
from Longreads https://longreads.com/2026/01/21/green-deathcare-industry/
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