Michelle McKeown: The greenest ways to go when you go
Natural burial: You’re wrapped in a biodegradable shroud or laid in a simple wicker or cardboard coffin and buried in a way that allows for natural decomposition
We spend our lives cleaning and recycling yogurt cartons, carrying reusable bags, and turning off the lights when we leave a room. But few of us stop to consider our final environmental footprint.
When all is said and done, how sustainable is our last great act... dying?
![<p> The International Union for the Conservation of Nature says that “an ecosystem is collapsed when it is virtually certain that its defining biotic [living] or abiotic [non-living] features are lost from all occurrences, and the characteristic native biota are no longer sustained”.</p> <p> The International Union for the Conservation of Nature says that “an ecosystem is collapsed when it is virtually certain that its defining biotic [living] or abiotic [non-living] features are lost from all occurrences, and the characteristic native biota are no longer sustained”.</p>](/cms_media/module_img/9930/4965053_12_augmentedSearch_iStock-1405109268.jpg)