OH BURY ME ON THE LONE PRAIRIE

Get your red hot biodegradable coffins for your green funeral...Yup, the latest green phase is eco-friendly cemeteries and biodegradable coffins.."It's composting at its best,"said Ms. Beal, owner of the Natural Burial Co., which will sell a variety of eco-friendly burial products when it opens in January,including the Ecopod, a kayak-shaped coffin made out of recycled newspapers.\Biodegradable coffins are part of a larger trend toward"natural"burials,which require no formaldehyde embalming, cement vaults, chemical lawn treatments or laminated caskets.Advocates say such burials are less damaging to the environment.

Cremation has long been considered more environmentally friendly than burials in graveyards, but its use of fossil fuels has raised concerns.

Eco-friendly burials have been popular in Britain for years, but industry experts say it's starting to catch on in the U.S.,where "green" cemeteries hosting natural burials have sprouted up in Texas,California, Florida, New York and South Carolina.

The majority of eco-friendly burial products come from overseas-including the Ecopod, which is made in the United Kingdom-although there are a few domestic makers. Options range from natural-fiber shrouds to fair-trade bamboo caskets lined with unbleached cotton.There are also more traditional-looking handcrafted coffins made of wood certified

by the Forest Stewardship Council.

The market is potentially huge. U.S. funeral homes generate an estimated $11 billion in revenue annually,and that figure is sure to grow as baby boomers age.(the two biggest business's in West are Aderholds Funeral Home and the grocery stores)

There are already specialty funerals, featuring caskets with custom paint jobs and urns with the insignia of a favorite team.(there you go....bury me in a croker sack stuffed into a refrigerator box painted blue and silver). Industry experts say eco-friendly funerals are just an extension of such personalized end-of-life planning.

Biodegradable containers cost from around $100 for a basic cardboard box up to more than $3,000 for a handcrafted, hand-painted model.

"It's hard to tell if it's a fad or if it's here to stay," said Bob Fells of the International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association."We are certainly positioning ourselves that if this is what the community wants, we are ready to serve them."...(blood sucking bastids...)(stolen from Sarah Skidmore of the Associated Press)

I see a booming business here...If Jerry Jones was smart he and the other owners of the teams would each start their own eco-friendly funeral business...Get your own NFL burial...Get buried in a coffin decorated in your favorite teams colors and you get your own personalized autographed football..They could build a cemetery right next to the stadium, and bury them on their ends facing the stadium ...so they can look out each Sunday and watch the game..I think I am going into the natural funeral business building paper mache coffins...

I need a hobby...I have way to much time on my hands and articles like this will just end up getting my ass in trouble...