Cremation versus burial Sam Weller How do you decide between burial and cremation? Sam Weller looks at the advantages and drawbacks of each, including costs and environmental considerations.

In this article

The move to cremation Burial makes a comeback

Environmental issues The cost

Cremation is chosen by more than 70 per cent of the population in Britain. Yet just a few decades ago they would probably have chosen burial.

Cremation was illegal in Britain before 1884. From then on, the concept was promoted by intellectuals of the day, surgeons, writers and artists. But as recently as 1940, a mere nine per cent of funerals ended in cremation.

The dramatic swing towards cremation has happened in less than two generations. After World War II, the Government and local authorities encouraged it as an efficient and convenient method of disposing of the dead and as a way to providing and maintaining cemeteries. The cremation movement's campaign slogan was 'Save the land for the living'.

The rise in cremations has levelled out and many cemeteries have reached, or are approaching, capacity.

Today there is a trend back to inhumation or burial of the body in a grave. The rise in cremations has levelled out and many cemeteries have reached, or are approaching, capacity. The report of the House of Commons Select Committee Inquiry into Cemeteries, published in March 2001, recognised that: 'The threat this poses to the freedom for individuals to choose burial is already very real.'

Although cremation was promoted after the war as environmentally preferable to burial, modern thinking is challenging this. Gas is consumed in the process - and trees (in the form of coffin wood) destroyed. Natural resources are used up, carbon dioxide is produced, adding to the global warming problem and harmful pollutants are released into the atmosphere. Natural decomposition after burial seems less harmful to the environment, especially when a shroud rather than a coffin is used. And if, as the Select Committee report recommends, graves are reused, no land is lost to the living but rather a community amenity is brought back into use.

Cost is a major factor for many in deciding between burial and cremation. In urban areas where crematoriums are easily accessible and grave space scarce, cremation can be significantly cheaper. Grave digging can cost £600 to £800, and in some places considerably more. Cremation should cost around £200 to £300. These costs do not include elements such as funeral director's charges, transport and a coffin or cremation urn.