When we think about what happens to our body after we die, some of us may picture a heavy, polished casket or an urn of ashes left after cremation.

But a growing number of people are choosing to return to the earth in more environmentally friendly ways.

Some are choosing water-based cremation, which doesn’t burn fossil fuels. Others are planning simpler death rituals that skip embalming, steel caskets and concrete burial vaults. Instead, the body is placed in the ground in a biodegradable basket or shroud and allowed to decompose as quickly and as naturally as possible.

MPR News guest host Catharine Richert talks with her guests about rising interest in these greener options and some of the questions and concerns that surround them. 

Guests:

• Angela Woosley has been a licensed mortician in Minnesota for 20 years. In 2020 she started her own funeral care business focused on natural death care, Inspired Journeys. She previously worked for a funeral home and taught in the Program of Mortuary Science at the University of Minnesota.   
• Taelor Johnson is the communications director for Interra Green Burial by Mueller Memorial in St. Paul and White Bear Lake. She’s the third generation working in the family-run funeral home.  
• MPR News correspondent Dan Kraker is based in Duluth and covered efforts to establish a green cemetery in Carlton County, Minn.