Support the recycled paper industry!
Are you familiar with that recycled symbol with the three arrows forming a triangle with a circular flow to it? Completing that cycle requires that we support the recycled products industry. An easy way to begin is by purchasing recycled household paper products, like toilet paper, paper towels, and napkins AND looking for packaging made from recycled material.
Unfortunately, until consumer demand begins to catch up with the more polluting means of making our paper, these products will cost a bit more. However, your purchase will use half the energy used to make paper from "virgin" sources and create 74% less air pollution. Surely that is worth a quarter! Here are some more reasons why this challenge deserves the green light:
In the U.S., the pulp and paper industry is the SECOND largest industry consumer of energy- "Paper production is a leading industrial source of dioxin, a known human carcinogen that bioaccumulates in the fat of fish, seabirds, and mammals." The Paper Project
- "If every household in the U.S. replaced just ONE 4-pack of 400 sheet virgin fiber bathroom tissue with 100% recycled ones, we would save 1,450,000 trees and avoid 89,000 pounds of pollution." Seventh Generation
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Not only can you recycle paper, you can recycle you!
It sounds like something from outer space, but “shelf people” are real, and they are looking for a place to call home. Shelf people are the cremated remains of individuals that are sitting on a shelf in someone's home or at a funeral home until they either get thrown away or are left for the next generation to decide what do with them.
Eternal Reefs, the only company in the United States to offer “green burial” at sea in artificial reef balls, is creating permanent homes for shelf people and surrounding them with life and new habitats for sea animals.
An astonishing 45 percent of families that have chosen cremation still have their loved ones remains sitting on a shelf or in a closet. Their urns end up in the trash or even on display at garage sales. Eternal Reefs has a solution for these shelf people – burial at sea in an artificial reef! I’ve posted some information below about Eternal Reefs and their 2008 green burial locations. Would you be interested in a story? We also have some great high resolution photos – including underwater shots. We can offer interviews with some of the families that have chosen reef burial as well. Thanks so much!
Eternal Reefs Announces 2008 “Green Burial” Reef Locations
Americans Now Leaving Permanent Eco-Living Legacies after Death
ATLANTA – January 30, 2008 – Plot space is running out across America. Families are moving, couples are divorcing and no one visits their local cemetery to check on their final resting place. What are the burial options for the next generation? Cremation is growing dramatically in the United States, and by 2010, the procedure may be included in 40 percent of funerals, according to the Cremation Association of North America. Given these cremation statistics, alternative burial trends are on the rise, including eco-friendly or “green burial,” urging many Americans to think about leaving a permanent eco-living legacy. For families and individuals that choose alternative burial, a new memorial option is gaining popularity – reef burial.
Over the past seven years, Atlanta-based Company Eternal Reefs has offered underwater burial at sea in an artificial reef called a “Memorial Reef.” Eternal Reefs is the only company in the United States to combine an individual’s cremated remains with eco-friendly cast concrete to form a designed reef called a reef ball. Weighing anywhere from 400 – 4,000 pounds, each Memorial Reef placed on the ocean floor creates a new marine habitat for fish and other forms of sea life, allowing a new ecosystem to develop. Memorial Reefs have also been a solution for the “shelf people” crisis across the country. An astonishing 45 percent of families that have chosen cremation still have their loved ones remains sitting on a shelf or in a closet. Thousands of individuals pass away unexpectedly and don’t leave a will, leaving the next generation to handle their remains. Eternal Reefs offers a final resting place for those individuals.
With every Memorial Reef, the executor of the estate receives two memorial certificates that identify the longitude and latitude of the memorials, which are marked with bronze plaques. Loved ones can participate in every step of the Memorial Reef process and gather for the reef casting, viewing and placement ceremonies. Throughout the year, families and friends often return to the memorial reef site to dive, fish or even visit by glass bottom boat.
“You’re seeing a change culturally. Rather than passing down an urn to future generations or taking up space in a cemetery, this memorial is a true living legacy, says Don Brawley, founder, Eternal Reefs Inc. “Our families find comfort in knowing their loved one has a final resting place and a meaningful environmental tribute to life.”
2008 Eternal Reefs locations include:
• Fort Myers, Florida – February 5, 2008
• Sarasota, Florida – February 8, 2008
• Miami, Florida – February 11, 2008
• Ocean City, New Jersey – May 16, 2008
• Ocean City, Maryland – May 19, 2008
• Sarasota, Florida – July 15, 2008
• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida – July 18, 2008
• Charleston, South Carolina – October 10, 2008
• Chesapeake Bay – October 13, 2008
For more information about Eternal Reefs visit: www.eternalreefs.com
About Eternal Reefs Inc.
Eternal Reefs, Inc is the first company in the United States to offer green burial at sea in an artificial reef ball to memorialize the cremated remains of a loved one. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia , the company incorporates cremated remains with environmentally safe concrete to form an artificial reef formation called a Memorial Reef. The artificial reefs are dedicated as permanent memorials while also bolstering natural coastal reef formations. Over 1,000 Memorial Reefs, have been placed off the coasts of Florida, South Carolina, Texas , New Jersey , Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia . For more information, visit: www.eternalreefs.com.
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it makes you realize how creepy it is to keep ashes of a dead loved one!
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