Disposition Options

This final disposition option is the one with which many of us are most familiar, involving a decedent being placed in a casket, which is then buried in a plot at a cemetery (often requiring a vault or liner) six feet below the surface. This form of disposition may follow an open or closed-casket funeral service, and/or a graveside service. The deceased person may or may not be embalmed.

Green--aka, natural--burial involves no embalming chemicals, and the deceased are often buried in biodegradeable burial shrouds (as above) or biodegradeable caskets (they can be made from several materials, including wicker, banana leaf, and others). This form of disposition is aimed at minimizing the environmental impact of burials by using biodegradeable materials. These burials often follow funeral, memorial, and/or graveside services, and they allow loved ones to participate, in varying degrees, in the actual disposition of the deceased person. Those who are naturally buried are either interred in a green burial cemetery or in a green burial section of a hybrid cemetery, and the grave is approximately three feet deep with additional soil mounded on top after interment. With slight variations in local regulations, green burial is legal in all 50 states.

This disposition form encompasses full-body burial at sea as well as the scattering of cremated remains at sea. The MPRSA permit allows for the interment of both bodily and cremated human remains at sea at least three nautical miles from shore. However, the permit does not authorize:

• Burial of non-human/pet remains at sea

• Placement of non-marine biodegradable materials (mausoleums, markers, plastic/metal flowers, etc.)

• Burial within three nautical miles of the shore

Flame-based cremation is another form of disposition with which many are familiar. In this method, human remains are placed into a cremator--either a retort or inline design--where they are converted into bone fragments with heat and flame. This process also includes the processing and pulverization of the bone fragments into cremated remains. Metal caskets, battery-operated medical implants like pacemakers, and similar such materials cannot be cremated. However, flame-based cremation very often occurs following a funeral service, and loved ones may choose to accompany the deceased person up to the beginning of the cremation process in a ceremony known as a "witness cremation." Memorial and other similar types of services are often conducted by loved ones with the deceased person's cremated remains present. Open-air flame cremations are only legal in the town of Crestone, Colorado, where the Crestone End of Life Project maintains a cremation pyre for Saguache County residents. Cremated remains are often returned to families in temporary containers--either cardboard or plastic--and they may choose to scatter those remains, inter them in a cemetery, or keep them in a permanent container/urn.

Also known as "water cremation," this form of disposition uses water, alkaline chemicals (potassium hydroxide, sodium hydroxide, or both--aka, "lye"), heat, and sometimes pressure/agitation to process human remains into bone fragments. Unlike flame-based cremation, pacemakers and other similar medical implants do not need to be removed prior to alkaline hydrolysis, bone fragments need to cool and be dried prior to processing, and only organic fabrics/materials can accompany human remains into the alkaline hydrolysis machine (no caskets). In addition, this process results in roughly 32% more remains than flame-based cremation. 25+ states have legalized this form of disposition. As with cremated remains, hydrolyzed remains are often returned to families in temporary, carboard or plastic containers; loved ones may decide to scatter those remains, inter them in a cemetery, or keep them in a permanent container/urn.

This form of disposition is defined as "the contained, accelerated conversion of human remains to soil." Human remains are placed in a vessel with a mixture or organic materials; the formulas vary depending on the company, but many mixtures contain materials like straw, sawdust, alfalfa, and occasionally wildflowers. The circulation of oxygen within the vessel supports microbial activity, which catalyzes the natural decomposition process and transforms the human body into soil in a matter of weeks. Prior to the process, families may choose to have a "laying-in ceremony"--which is similar to a funeral service--to commemorate their loved one and, following the process, they will receive approximately one cubic yard of soil in return. (That is roughly the size of a small pickup truckbed.) Families may choose to scatter the soil, use it in a garden, divide it and share it with other loved ones, or donate it to environmental conservation projects, which several NOR companies offer. As of December 2025, NOR has been legalized in 14 states: Washington, Arizona, Colorado, California, Delaware, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, and Vermont. If NOR is not yet legal in your state, you may be able to connect with an out-of-state company that provides this service. Recompose, Return Home, and Earth--all of which are based out of Washington State--are NOR companies that frequently work with families from outside of the state.