THE MORNING LIST
To be “green” to the end. After having tried to preserve the planet during its lifetime, how do you leave with the least impact on the environment? Death pollutes. And with the increase in the number of deaths (613,000 in France in 2019, according to INSEE) due to the aging of baby boomers, the post-mortem carbon footprint will not get better. So that his final gesture is reasoned and reasonable, a few tips to organize his last trip.
Cremation rather than burial
According to an Ipsos survey (October 2018), 63% of French people favor cremation against 37% for burial. Apart from all personal, religious or economic considerations, what is the least polluting process? A study commissioned by the Fondation des services funéraires de la Ville de Paris published in October 2017, and in free consultation, calculated: “Burial is equivalent to 3.6 cremations in terms of CO2”. Between the coffin, the maintenance of the tomb and the cemetery, it generates 833 kg of CO2, or 11% of the emissions of a French person over one year. Added to this is soil pollution linked to chemicals used to preserve the body of the deceased. Cremation, “Accounts for on average 3% of the emissions of an average French person over a year”. Here, gas represents 56% of CO2 emissions, far ahead of infrastructure (24%) and the coffin (12%). There is therefore an advantage to this process, which is not necessarily “clean”. In addition to greenhouse gases, a burnt body releases dioxins but also mercury, in particular due to dental amalgam used in the past. Since 2018, all of the 167 French crematoriums must be equipped with high-performance filters, but some do not yet meet the strictest standards.
A reminder: In France, the choice of burial is limited to these two practices. All other “ecological” alternatives, in force in several foreign countries, are prohibited. Such as the promession, a technique invented in Sweden which involves immersing a person’s body in liquid nitrogen. The cooled and friable body then turns into powder that can fertilize the soil. Or humusation, a process of transforming the corpse into compost, using microorganisms. A return to the land in the literal sense, authorized in Washington State (United States) and experienced in Belgium.
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