So I'm driving home from work today listening to how bad the Red Raiders choked on the local sports station, when a construction site catches my eye. I look closer, and its another freaking funeral home! Funeral homes and Senior living communities are popping up like Starbucks in the Dallas suburbs.
When I get home I do some research and learn that the National Funeral Directors Association needs a new website, and expects 2.6 million deaths in 2010...then over 3 mil in 2020. According to their fact sheet, in 2004 the average US cost of a funeral was $6,500. That cost includes an outer burial container, but does not include cemetery costs. Are you kidding me? These guys are ripping people off.
Then I start thinking more about the funeral ceremony and all the wastes involved in the process. Doesn't it seem weird that when a loved one dies, we embalm'em then store'em in a bulky, decay-resistant wooden casket?
So naturally I type 'green funerals' in google, and BAM....I'm inundated with great ideas that others (mostly Europeans) have already thought of. Things like cardboard biodegradable coffins, or super-eco friendly recycled newspaper coffins that look like those Yakima storage containers that the lesbians in Oregon put on top of their Subaru's.
The Spaniards are even getting creative with their new solar power cemetary. So what do you guys think? Maybe there's a serious future for an inexpensive green funeral service in the US.
Green Funeral
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3 comments:
It would obviously have to be more inexpensive than a traditional funeral. Ie: their "most modestly priced receptacle," but I think that is a huge opportunity. Also, the lesbians in Colorado have those Yakima storage containers on top of their Subaru's. They also have long gray hair and wear Birkenstocks, but who's counting.
Hot Asian Chicks? Where?
Yes ma'am, the Doctor is in, specializes in Yellow Fever, and loves to make house calls.
Anyways, this is a great opportunity. You have to ask, why do people allow themselves to get ripped off for coffins? Guilt. They feel bad for not splurging for their loves who have passed. They're emotional and ill-suited to make rational decisions. In other words, there's a "sentimental premium" on coffins because of the nature of the product.
Green coffins could turn the conversation away from "how much do you love your dead husband" to "what's makes sense for those who are living." It's ripe.
Agreed?
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