The price of death: How going green could save you money

Green living is one thing, but green dying is another. By choosing to be buried in an eco-friendly way, you could save yourself hundreds of pounds.

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According to the Funeral Plan Market Report on average burials or cremations costs around £2,000. With a solid wood coffin adding up to around £1000, opting for an eco-friendly cardboard coffin could save you £900.

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The report also showed that after 10am 84% of crematoriums double their prices.

The cheapest place to be cremated is Morden in Surrey where it costs just £274 before 10am, after it rises to £570.

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The Natural Death Centre lists around 200 natural burial sites in the UK. Choosing to be buried in one of these will lower the cost significantly no matter what time of the day. Headstones are banned, instead they plant trees on top of the coffins so that the graveyards are woodlands or meadows. With gravestones averaging at £800, trees are a cheaper option.

“Burials in traditional cemeteries will usually be more expensive than an eco-funeral, because they have more costs in terms of maintaining grounds and headstones etcetera,” said Rosie Inman-cook from the Natural Death Centre.

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“Most funeral directors will be able to provide simple or basic funeral options - these are just as dignified and respectful as any alternative, and often many hundreds of pounds cheaper.”

According to The Natural Death Centre the reason funeral costs can be so high is because people don’t do their own research and believe urban myths, how it’s against the law to not use a coffin or that you must use a funeral director.

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Louise Winters, who runs alternative funeral parlor, Poetic Endings, said: “It’s imperative to do your own research. You don't need to go with a local funeral director just because they're there.  You can shop around, talk to people, look at their websites and give them a call.  Do you resonate with them?  Do they seem interested and involved?”