coffins

[oxymoron]

I heard somewhere if you were going to be cremated you could `hire` a wooden coffin with a cardboard insert and the insert with the person inside would be cremated but the outer coffin could then be reused. Anyone else heard of this?

[suzie1]

dont think thats true

[suzie1]

but...........then again anything is poss in this country hey

[funnygirl]

But I am sure they don't burn the whole wooden coffin.

Imagine how long it would take to burn everything!!!

[naomi24]

http://www.staffspast...funerals/Funerals.htm

[boxtops]

Yes I have heard of this, particularly if you are having a cardboard coffin or being buried in a woodland cemetery, I think it was featured on the TV a while back when Richard Wilson made that fascinating documentary about people's views on dying and the processes surrounding it.

[oxymoron]

I agree funnygirl about the time taken so what happens to the expensive coffins people pay out for.

[boxtops]

Fuunygirl I think you will find they DO burn the coffin - they take of the brass handles etc. The heat in a crematorium furnace is huge, so it doesn't take that long.

[funnygirl]

Such a waste then!

I want to be cremated and have left instructions to put me in a cardbox box if they can!!

[boxtops]

PS this was asked here a couple of years ago

http://www.theanswerb...s/Question400425.html

[naomi24]

They usually burn the coffin with the body - but the link I gave shows the sort of reusable coffin that oxymoron is asking about.

[askyourgran]

Apparantly it doesn't take long at all to burn as the heat in the furnace is extremely hot. My sisters and I have just scattered my parents ashes, I was expecting dust, but the remains were more like cat litter I never thought about it but they burn the coffin too.

[mrs_overall]

Some of my relatives work in the family owned funeral business, so I have some knowledge of this subject.
It galls me when people spend a small fortune on coffins that are going to be burnt. I actually talked one old dear out of spending over £2k on a solid oak coffin that was destined for cremation. I think it's a generation thing - the oldies want to be seen to doing their best for their departed loved ones.
A basic coffin costs around £30 but a funeral director will retail it at several hundred pounds - the mark up is astronomical.
I'd suggest everyone should have their own made by a local joiner or use a cardboard one. Coffins are NEVER reused.

Don't even get me started on the money wasted on floral tributes.....after the cremation, these are always thrown in a skip around the back.

[naomi24]

So what about the coffin in the link I provided, Mrs. O? The company says:

//The outer wooden coffin contains an inner cardboard coffin. Only the cardboard coffin is cremated. The wooden coffin is reused. This system is less wasteful, reduces pollution and is less expensive than cremating or burying a traditional coffin. //

Seems it's a new innovation. I'd never heard of it before.

[oxymoron]

Thanks everyone for your input. I really feel so much money is wasted a funeral can still be dignified and respectful whithout all the expense.

[mrs_overall]

naomi, I'll hold my hands up and say it's a new one on me. I wouldn't be too happy about re-using a coffin as bodies leak and purge fluids. Would you want your loved one to be laying in someone elses gunk? Urgh!

[boxtops]

When I worked in the hospice, the local undertakers would always ask family permission for the floral tributes to be brought round to us, then the housekeeping staff would unpick them so they looked less funereal. The hospice day rooms always had lovely flowers, which helped raise everyone's spirits. I wish other funeral directors did the same!

[askyourgran]

Thats a lovely thing to do Boxtops, we saw some really lovely floral tributes laid out on the grass when we were at the crematorium, it's sad to think they'll go to waste.

[craft1948]

I'm having one of those whicker ones (er not quite in the style of Edward Woodward)

[hippyhoppy]

We took mum's flowers home with us - they had cost a bloody fortune because (as the florist explained) it was (ironically) mothers day coming up so the prices had doubled!!

[mrs_overall]

But craft, won't the gin leak out through the wickerwork?