While watching the TV show Long Island Medium, main character and self-proclaimed psychic Theresa Caputo argued over burial plans with her husband Larry. She wanted to be buried in a cemetery plot with a serene view, ample shade, and a meaningful stone.
He wanted to be made into sand art.
PHOTO CREDIT: PIKREPO
Surprised by Larry’s lighthearted answer, I wondered: what else can really happen to your body after you die? After all, the average cost of a funeral is set to surpass $9,000 by 2020– and that could buy quite a haul of sand art.
In a society with marketing trends that target “individuality” and being unique, why do we all still spend eternity in a box? Instead of seeking solace six feet under the soil, here are five casket alternatives for the uncommon corpse:
5. Tree burial
PHOTO CREDIT: DARIA SHEVTSOVA VIA PEXELS
Tree huggers: clutch your pearls and hold your applause. You can *actually* be transformed into your sapling of choice to commemorate your life. While millions of pounds of wood, steel and pollutants are buried underground from casket burials, this option is refreshingly eco-friendly! Biodegradable urns are now on the market to give back to the environment, and they’ll only set you back about $140.
4. Donate to science
PHOTO CREDIT: Павел Сорокин VIA PEXELS
Arrange it with your local medical school beforehand, but donating your body to science is a great way to conserve underground real estate! Donations provide material to test new cures and medical field advancements, so consider donating to one of the thousands of medical schools around the country in need.
3. Become sand art
PHOTO CREDIT: DEEANA CREATES VIA PEXELS
Theresa Caputo’s husband may have been on to something. While being cremated and incorporating ashes into project-grade sand or paint isn’t the most conventional, it offers your loved ones a treasured keepsake. Maybe not the most suitable for a timid, tomb traditionalist, but it’s a low-waste aesthetic memorial that doubles as decoration. Plus, imagine the dinner party conversation:
“Oh what a stunning work, I didn’t know you collected art!”
“Thanks. It’s Great-Uncle Chuck.”
2. Mummification
PHOTO CREDIT: ROXANNE SHEWCHUK VIA PEXELS
Technically you can still be mummified, though modern-day mummification is admittedly reserved for modern-day pharaohs with the cost alone. The price of the actual mummification process starts at a whopping $67,000 before adding an appropriately ornate sarcophagus to spend eternity in.
1. Baby you’re a firework
PHOTO CREDIT: RAKICEVIC NENAD VIA PEXELS
Go out with a BANG. Incorporating your ashes into fireworks for a final, fiery farewell is perhaps the most attention-grabbing casket alternative on the list. Share this as a suggestion to your all-eyes-on-me friends! Just be sure to check that the family of the deceased is on-board before making arrangements; otherwise face an explosive confrontation when they realize you’ve blown up their relative’s remains.
Life Expired. 
Very interesting
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I loved this thoughtful post! I am off to explore more of your site!
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So unusual. So you. Loved it
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We like the fireworks idea the best, but we are going for sprinkling ashes on your favorite body of water or Mountain peak.😁
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This is a great start to a taboo subject that shouldn’t be ! My grandma used to say, “Ain’t none of us get out of this world alive,” but Americans, especially, worship at the feet of eternal youth and like to pretend that mortality is way out there in someone else’s future.
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