Eco-friendly shrouds to reduce cremation emissions

Posted: Tue 23 Jun 2009 6 55 am

Bereaved relatives are being told to dress their loved ones in special eco-friendly shrouds for cremation because normal clothes emit too much pollution.

Council crematoria have banned families from dressing the deceased in their favourite outfits, under the strict rules against man-made fabrics.
Parents have even been forbidden from placing soft toys insides their children's coffins because they could pose a risk to the environment when burned.

Instead, grieving relatives are being told they must pay Â£60 for a council-approved "fluffy and frilly" shroud made of 100 per cent natural fibres.

"When we went to see her in the chapel of rest, we couldn't believe it," said one man, who has complained to Kirklees Council in West Yorkshire about the treatment of his relative.

The council denied it was being overzealous in its enforcement of rules designed to reduce cremation emissions. Even coloured cotton clothes are considered a potential eco-hazard because their dyes could be artificial.

"Kirklees Council does not wish to cause upset and distress to bereaved families at a particularly sensitive time," she said.

snip

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/5543707/Eco-friendly-shrouds-to-reduce-cremation-emissions.html

Posted: Tue 23 Jun 2009 7 03 am

We envirofascists wouldn't be seen dead in an eco-friendly shroud! Twisted Evil

Joined: 13 Aug 2005 Posts: 2902

Bestbear wrote:

We envirofascists wouldn't be seen dead in an eco-friendly shroud! Twisted Evil

But I presume that you wouldn't be seen dead in such a pagan place as a crematorium either Besty, I know I wouldn't.

Posted: Tue 23 Jun 2009 9 10 am

Mrs Bear has a place booked for both of us in the local cemetery, TJ.

Her ambition is to have "Wife of the Above" on her gravestone!

My inscription is to be "I TOLD you I wasn't feeling well!"

Posted: Tue 23 Jun 2009 10 20 am

Bestbear wrote:

My inscription is to be "I TOLD you I wasn't feeling well!"

Spike Milligan has something similar doesn't he?

Some other comic, might have been Billy Connolly, said he wants to have inscribed on his stone, in very very small letters....

"you're standing on my balls!"

Joined: 05 Nov 2005 Posts: 2977 Location: North of Watford

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/southern_counties/3742443.stm

My favourite epitaph used to be WC Fields's "On the whole, I'd rather be in Philadelphia" until I discovered, sadly, that it was never used.

Spartacus

Posted: Tue 23 Jun 2009 1 47 pm

Spartacus wrote:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/southern_counties/3742443.stm

My favourite epitaph used to be WC Fields's "On the whole, I'd rather be in Philadelphia" until I discovered, sadly, that it was never used.

Spartacus

There is, I am assured (haven't seen it myself though), a old gravestone in an eastend cemetery bearing the epitaph,

Wherever you be
Let your wind blow free
For holding it back
Was the death of me
Here I lie
Under this stone
Wishing that
I had blown

You just don't get that kind of class these days do you?

Another which I found amusing was mentioned by Leslie Thomas in "This Time Next Week" (the touching, funny and sad story of his early life as a Barnardo boy, well worth reading if you haven't by the way). He reported seeing on a stone in a country churchyard

Here I lie by the chancel door
Here I lie because I'm poor
The further in
The more you pay
But here I lie
As warm as they

Joined: 05 Nov 2005 Posts: 2977 Location: North of Watford

Great book, "This Time Next Week". Used to use it when I was teaching English.

Spartacus