Freeze drying is one of the greenest ways to go.

There are a lot of ways to deal with a person’s body after he or she is done using it. Their last remains can be buried, burned, put in trees, or donated to science. But one Swedish company has a different approach to sending people off to their final rewards. Freeze drying. Just like the liquid T-1000 in Terminator 2. It turns out to be one of the greenest ways to go.

It turns out that traditional burial takes a toll on the environment. There’s the coffin, which is either metal or wood, heavy, and sometimes finished with toxic materials. Since many coffins deteriorate, leaving unsightly hollows in an otherwise beautiful cemetary, many cemetaries require vaults. Those vaults use tons of concrete that has to be made and transported. The process of getting the body ready also has an environmental impact. About 827,060 gallons of embalming fluid are used per year, so that even getting the body ready took time. Each cremation takes enough energy to drive almost five thousand miles, and the combined results of all cremations releases thousands of pounds of mercury into the atmosphere.

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