The growing industry of green burials

The Indicator from Planet Money

NPR

Business

4.7 • 9.5K Ratings

🗓️ 4 March 2024

⏱️ 11 minutes

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Summary

One estimate says 2.4 million people die in the U.S. each year, and burying them is expensive: a typical burial can cost about $10,000. That's a lot of money, caskets, and plots filling up cemeteries. But ... what if there was a cost-effective option to bury people, one that was good for the Earth and your pocket book? Today, we look at the prices and features of sustainable burials.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	NPR This is the indicator from Planet Money. I'm Darien Woods and today we've got Felix Poon here with us. Hey Felix.
0:18.0	Hey Darien.
0:19.0	So good to have you. You're a producer for the Public Radio Podcast Outside Inn and this is a show about nature and
0:25.0	relationship to it. Yeah and here's a pop quiz question for you. Okay. Can you
0:30.6	guess how many funerals happen every year in the US?
0:34.0	Oh, I don't know, 10 million?
0:36.0	Not quite. You overshot it.
0:38.0	One estimate puts it at 2.4 million.
0:42.0	Okay, I'm a bit pessimistic on how many Americans are dying every year.
0:46.4	So the funeral business is a $20 billion industry and it's growing because, you know, demographics, the number of seniors is actually expected
0:55.8	to increase by almost 50% in the next couple of decades.
0:59.9	I guess that some of those are wanting to look for low cost options because funerals are expensive.
1:05.0	They're also looking for more sustainable options too because you know climate change.
1:10.0	So it's not just burials and cremations now.
1:12.9	There's a growing market for green funeral options.
1:17.3	Green everything, including death.
1:20.7	So today we're going to be talking about all of these options for what to do with your body after you die.
1:26.0	We're going to look at what the costs are, both the environmental costs and the cost of your pocketbook.
1:31.0	It's all coming off after the break.
1:35.0	This message is brought to you by NPR sponsor HubSpot.
1:38.0	What if you could find track and close deals all in one place?
1:42.0	What if connecting with customers didn't leave you with so many what ifs?
	...

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