The unsustainability of final disposition: a natural capital perspective

Popular methods of disposition are unsustainable from a natural capital perspective. Coffin burials pollute the soil, while gas cremators produce an average of 540 pounds (245 kilograms) of carbon dioxide emission per body. In response, sustainable alternatives such as natural burials, alkaline hydrolysis, and human composting have (re)emerged. With sustainability defined as the substitution of human capital with natural capital, we review 14 final disposition methods and rank them from most to least sustainable. Using the shadow price index to analyse and measure each method, we find that technological and comestation methods are the most sustainable, while burial and cremation methods are the least. However, technological and comestation methods are, on average, negatively perceived. We step from this analysis to argue that the next most pressing research question is over how popular opinion of greener disposition methods can turn more positive.