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No, Scattering Ashes Is Not Harmful
A popular Medium article claims that it is harmful to people, plants, and the sea to scatter your loved ones' ashes in nature.
I found a popular Medium article in my feed this morning written by Your NativeFriend. In the article, the writer claims that spreading human ashes in nature harms people, plants, and the ocean. That is simply not true. I had to write this story to stop the misinformation on the topic.
Urns Northwest says cremation has risen by 53% in recent years. It is cheaper than a burial. For that reason, many people are choosing this method.
But is cremation harmful to our environment? That seems to be the question. The answer is no, not really.
“Human cremains mixed into the soil shouldn’t be harmful to plants,” Urns Northwest stated. This is the source Your NativeFriend used. But instead of taking the stance that Urn Northwest took, stating spreading ashes is safe, they decided to take a few sentences from the article to “prove” it is a dangerous thing to do.
As for the claim that it is bad for the ocean, that is also untrue. It isn’t any more dangerous than any other mineral found in the ocean.
Cremains contain harmless minerals as far as the ocean is…
