Bios Urn: the startup that lets you grow a tree from human ashes.

[Cattledog]

Jay Junker’s father has blossomed into a beautiful oak tree on the side of a mountain in Vermont. As oak trees go, this one is still in its infancy. But Junker has a vision of spending more time with it – and his father – as it grows. He says: “In a few years, I’ll be able to hang my hammock out there and just swing in the breeze with my dad by my side and watching over me.”

Junker buried his father in a Bios Urn, a biodegradable urn designed to grow trees from ashes. Since 2012, brothers Roger and Gerard Moliné have sold 100,000 Bios Urns to people looking to turn the ashes of loved ones or pets into trees all over the world from their head office in Barcelona, Spain.

The urn arrives in the post as a cardboard tube made of two separate cones, one for holding ashes and another containing a soil mix and the seed of choice, whether that is a maple, oak, pine or any other tree or bush. The buyer then decants the ashes into the bottom cone and buries the two parts together. That’s easy for people like Junker, who has 200 acres of family-owned land in Vermont. He dreams of one day planting all his family and pets in the same field so he can always spend time with them.

Entire article at:

http://www.independent.co.uk/Business/indyventure/startup-biodegradable-urn-grow-tree-human-remains-business-a7852446.html

[underpants]

1. Is this legal in the US?

It might be by state. I'll look it up. I saw this a few years ago and that is definitely the way I'd want to go.

[PoliticAverse]

3. Why wouldn't it be anywhere creamation is legal? n/t

[underpants]

4. There are restrictions on burials

And I think they can differ from state to state. That's why I asked. Yes I know you'd already be cremated but for instance a cement block is required even for embalmed bodies in coffins.

[Beakybird]

2. I'm dying to become a tree someday!

Maybe I'll find my roots.

[PoliticAverse]

5. Do people consider you to be "earthy"?

[The_jackalope]

6. My father made excellent champagne from his home-grown pears

We threatened to spread his ashes in his pear orchard when he died, and name the subsequent product "Père Champagne". I don't think he has a sense of humour - so far he's still alive.