Though there are a lot of factors that go into deciding what to do with your body or the body of your loved ones after they’ve passed, there is still a significant stigma against cremation services. While each person has the right to handle their respective family’s body however they choose, and more people are beginning to take cremation more seriously, it’s worth taking a serious look at the benefits offered by the service and why it’s objectively the better option, not just for you, but for everyone else as well.
Reason #1. It’s Cheaper
This, for many people, can be all the reason they need to look into cremation over funeral burials. This is because, while it may not look like it, burials are a very expensive procedure. It’s actually a bit insidious when you think about it.
Regardless, even if you factor in the full memorial services that one can expect to have with their funeral, there is virtually no comparison between cremation and burials. Most places can cost between $700 and $2,000 for everything while even the most basic of burial services will range between $5,000 and $10,000, with potentially much more included.
Certain crematoriums like Arlington Cremation Services (arlingtoncremationservices.com) offer incredibly reasonable rates as well as a number of different services, all starting around $800.
Reason #2. Greater Flexibility
After price, the next biggest benefit to cremation is the fact that it offers a greater degree of flexibility compared to burial services. In most instances, you expect the burial service to just be a burial service. On the other hand, if going through a cremation service, you can keep the ashes with you in an urn, keep them at a funeral site, release them as per the person’s wishes, use them as fertilizer for plants and trees, or even have them condensed down into a diamond. These are all an extensive variety of options that simply aren’t available to those buried. Not only are many of these options cheaper, but they can often result in a greater sense of emotional closure for all parties involved.
Reason #3. Environmental Benefits
One big area that is rarely touched on is the fact that burial services, while expensive, are also environmentally unsustainable. From the various embalming chemicals used, the different materials used to construct the caskets, the amount of fuel used to transport the casket to the burial site, and the different pieces of machinery used to dig up the site and lower the casket down, there is a tremendous amount of negative impact done to the planet.
Cremation not only is a relatively smaller impact on the environment, but if you opt to plant the ashes with sprawling trees, you are ultimately benefiting the planet as a whole, something that is much more immediate compared to the slow and arduous process done with burials due to the embalming procedures.