Traditional burials are highly resource-intensive. There are coffins to manufacture and ship

and concrete vaults to build

More than 800,000 gallons of

embalming fluid

are interred in Mother Earth annually, most of it containing carcinogenic formaldehyde

burying your bones 6 feet deep means that your corpse will decompose without the benefit of oxygen. Instead of producing carbon dioxide and water, as your remains would if they were buried in topsoil, your body will sludge-ify and begin leaking out methane

crematories

use a combination of natural gas and electricity to incinerate their occupants. One leading manufacturer told the Green Lantern that a typical machine requires about 2,000 cubic feet of natural gas and 4 kilowatt-hours of electricity per body

cremation wins by a nose. First of all, cremations are usually a single-time operation, whereas burial plots require ongoing maintenance