THIS EARTH DAY, BRING OUT YOUR DEAD

Hello again, Quartz Obsession readers! We’ll just get right to it:... we’ve been burying our dead for at least 40,000 years. But over the last couple of centuries... the practice has become toxic—literally.

In the latest episode of our Quartz Obsession podcast, host Annalisa Merelli and guest Amanda Shendruk unearth the possibilities that rest within green burials, a more ecologically friendly way to deal with our dead.

Listen right now! FIXING THE AFTERDEATH

We hear you, an episode on death seems like a grim prospect. But green burials have the potential to turn an unsettling topic into something beautiful. What we think of as “traditional” burial practices, which are actually relatively recent in human history, use toxins that contaminate groundwater and poison funeral workers. Cremation is a little better, and certainly takes up less space, but it lets loose a ton of emissions.

And all this, just to delay the inevitable decay of our human bodies, which have the potential to become a helpful, productive part of the ecosystem in death.

Believe us when we tell you there’s a better way.