As of today, the cemetary industry is a drain on the environment and land use. Trees that take years to mature, are cut and turned into coffins used for a mere few days before buried to rot; Embalming fluid hurts the soil and environment; yearly the industry buries billions of pounds of steel that could be of more utility used in construction; We cloth the dead in millions of pounds of cotton that took acres of fields to grow; And we cover the landscape with tombstones made of precious stone. Its unsustainable all around.
The new norm should be:
Introduce policy that requires (1) Discontinuation of all the above practices, and (2) require the use of organic "burial pods" (bodies put inside, buried, trees are planted above each) SEE http://distractify.com/pinar/human-now-tree-later/