FACTS ABOUT CREMATION FOR PEOPLE IN MANHATTAN AND BROOKLYN
A typical "alternative container" is a fortified cardboard box that costs about $195. It can be decorated by the family at home or at the crematory chapel.
Cremation does not replace the funeral. You can still have a funeral with the body present before the cremation, or a memorial service with an urn there afterwards.
If a cremation is planned–and a wake, formal funeral or identification of the body is still anticipated– you needn’t be saddled with the costs of a casket. Ask your funeral home about a ceremonial rental casket with cardboard cremation liner.
The lowest cremation price from your phone calling and Google search is too low. Trust me. New York City funeral homes charging bottom dollar may be cutting corners and moving fast to increase their total sales volume (or annual calls). I also don't recommend, if you can help it, having all the authorizations scanned and emailed.
If time allows and your family is interested, the cremation box can be creatively decorated. Ask your funeral director to charge you extra to bring the cardboard cremation box to your house so that you and the grandkids (for example) can write, paint and draw on grandma’s casket. Sounds potentially strange and disastrous, I know, but like brides on their wedding day, these home decorated sacred vessels are surprisingly gorgeous and engage the family in an activity that is wildly uplifting. It may also be possible to decorate the cardboard box as part of the service in the crematory's chapel.
For an additional sum, a short service with closed casket or cremation box can generally be held at crematories that have a chapel attached to them. The box or casket’s entry into the retort (or cremation chamber) can also be personally witnessed or scheduled for a specific time. Witnessing gives some families peace of mind, and a feeling that the deceased person was accompanied "the whole way." If you’re not up for this, you could ask a friend to witness the casket's entry into the retort for you.
An unceremonious or “direct” cremation can mean that the deceased will be cremated in a plastic body bag or hospital gown. Most grieving families never think about this in advance and if they did, they’d probably realize that, of course, they’d like the deceased properly dressed.
You can have your deceased relatives bathed and dressed for a quick viewing or just to know they went to the crematory looking as good as they could look. For this, your funeral bill may go up only $300-$500.
Ash is pulverized bone, inert calcium and mineral salts left in the retort after burning which are then processed by a noisy mill into a grainy powder.
Cremated remains weigh about four pounds and are returned to the family in a boxy, plastic, temporary container. Please don't let this box sit too long in a hall closet. This is bad Feng Shui, among other things. Buy an urn. Ask the crematory or cemetery about a wall or ground niche. Do something with the remains. Move the old energy of loss out as soon as you are ready.
Cremated remains—by themselves when scattered—are not especially good for plants. There’s a product called Let Your Love Grow that, when mixed in, makes the ashes better for growing things.
Cremation takes up less land and might save some money, but here's the downside with nearly all crematories: it takes a fair amount of fossil fuel to heat that retort (or oven) to 1800 degrees F and keep it heated for two to three hours. Ask your funeral director or crematory about how many cremations are performed in the average day since busy crematories like Green-Wood Cemetery's in Brooklyn are more fuel efficient (as the retort is not constantly being cooled and reheated). Also ask how up-to-date the equipment is at whichever crematory your funeral director recommends (the more modern the better). Then perhaps, if you are not satisfied with the answers you're getting and your family is open to changing plans quite dramatically, consider the new love of my life (sorry Steve)–green burial. Pine box. Or simple shroud. Drive out of the city and convene in a green cemetery. Let your loved one descend into the soil. This is the way our teachers, Jews and Muslims, have done it all along. And it's something I'll post more about later.