Why do environmentalists oppose conventional burials?
Wikipedia states: Each year, 22,500 cemeteries across the United States bury approximately: • 30 million board feet (70,000 m) of hardwoods (caskets) • 90,272 tons of steel (caskets) • 14,000 tons of steel (vaults) • 2,700 tons of copper and bronze (caskets) • 1,636,000 tons of reinforced concrete (vaults) • 827,060 US gallons (3,130 m) of embalming fluid, which most commonly includes formaldehyde. However it is worth noting that embalming fluid chemically changes in the act of preserving the body and is not largely present as a fluid and this figure refers to embalming fluid before it is introduced to the body.
