Being dead as a doornail is apparently no excuse for not being concerned with the environment.
That's why one mortician in Boring, Ore., is taking it upon herself to tell her customers how they can spend eternity without harming Earth -- by creating urns out of their leftover laundry lint.
She's Elizabeth Fournier, but her customers know her as "the Green Reaper," for her expertise on green funerals, a movement gaining significant traction in the funeral business.
"Cemeteries use a lot of water, energy and chemicals," she said. "Plus, a lot of metal and steel gets buried in the ground where it can't decompose. Even worse, the formaldehyde used for embalming leeches into the ground."
Although the "green" label is relatively new, the concept is not. For instance, Jewish burials are usually done in a very simple pine box that has holes drilled in it to ensure that the deceased turns into ashes and dust as quickly as possible.
And, back in the old days, bodies tended to be buried where they died as quickly and economically as possible, except in extreme cases, such as a member of royalty.
Fournier, 42, says the modern way of death -- where corpses are embalmed and preserved for burial -- is only about 150 years old.
"Embalming only started during the Civil War because people were dying far away from home and needed to be preserved when they were shipped back home."
Fournier's appreciation of green funerals was, in part, affected by her clientele's lack of it.
"Most of the families in the area where I work don't have a lot of money, so I am trying to find out ways to help them bury their loved ones economically and environmentally," said Fournier, who is also an ordained minister. She lets them know all the options and, as a result, about 68 percent of her clients opt for cremation.
For those who'd rather be buried than burned, Fournier says Earth-friendly caskets can be crafted out of a variety of materials: wood, bamboo, banana leaves, even willow branches.
However, in order to keep costs down further (and protect Earth from metals that don't decompose), Fournier has found a way to recycle old laundry lint into stylish, decorative (and decomposable) urns. Like many great ideas, the inspiration came in a sudden flash.
"I was trying to find a way to make something economical out of recyclable materials, and I went to clean out the lint trap on the dryer and saw all of the lint -- and it's quite beautiful, really. Plus, there's hair and that has lots of fiber that helps with binding."
Fournier says it only takes 3 cups of lint, 2 cups of water and 2/3 of a cup of flour to make a stylish urn, and recommends putting in seeds for beloved plants into the urn so that something beautiful can come alive after the death.
Fournier made her first urn in January with the help of her friend, artist Marlies Franklin, and the duo is making others in honor of today's 40th anniversary of Earth Day.
Each urn holds up to 15 pounds of cremated ashes which, even in a country noted for the near-epidemic obesity of its citizens, is more than enough: the ashes of the average man weighs about 10 pounds in ash form, the average woman weighs 8.
She figures it will take about three months for everything to decay to its original state, which is certainly shorter than, say, the average plastic shampoo bottle.
Considering how laundry lint is a vastly under-recycled item, Fournier could probably make a killing with her urns. However, she isn't trying to earn money with her urns. She just wants the idea to catch on, so she's offering her recipe free of charge to anyone who wants to do it themselves.
But she reminds folks that they don't have to be tied to laundry lint for their urns.
"Banana skins work great, too," she said.
Filed under: Weird News
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