If you are trying to plan for your final arrangements, or you are making the decision for a loved one who has passed, you will likely be choosing between traditional burial and cremation services in Marietta, GA. More and more people now are realizing the importance of how our actions effect the environment. Even when it comes to funeral arrangements, your choice can have an impact. If you or your loved one felt passionately about eco-friendly actions, you may want to consider cremation services. They have a significantly lower impact compared to traditional burial, and there are several reasons why.

To begin with, traditional burial requires a plot of land, while cremation does not. One person’s burial plot may seem small, but they quickly add up to encompass large amounts of land across the country. While some people choose to have their ashes buried, they take up much less space, and generally several people’s urns can be buried within one burial plot. Many others choose not to be buried at all. When it comes to the caskets that people are buried in, these are not biodegradable for the most part. They often have components made of metal or other materials which will either take many years to break down, or won’t break down at all. There are options for biodegradable “green burial”, but this is not the norm when it comes to traditional burial. With cremation, you can find biodegradable urns which can be buried in the earth or at sea. These quickly break down and release your loved one’s remains back into the environment, in a natural way.

Read More: Memorializing After Cremation

Something else that you can avoid with cremation services is embalming. Embalming involves the use of some chemicals that can be harmful to the environment. When a person is buried who has been embalmed, those chemicals may eventually be introduced into the earth. With cremation, you avoid this altogether. Although some people do choose to have their loved ones embalmed prior to cremation so that they can hold a viewing service, the chemicals do not enter the ground.

One last thing to note with traditional burial is the use of wood for caskets. Many caskets are made from valuable hard wood, which could be put to many other uses. Instead, it is buried and left to slowly degrade in the ground. Some cemeteries contain enough buried wood to build dozens of houses. Cremation allows you to avoid using these valuable resources.