Leave it to my rational younger brother (he’s a tech entrepreneur, after all) to find a reasonable, eco-friendly solution for the death of everyone in my family (and no, it’s not as ominous as it sounds): Let us be trees!

Bios Urn, an eco-friendly alternative for death

Earlier today, he sent me and my parents a link to an urn that turns your ashes into a tree. Product designer Gerard Moline has created Bios Urn, a biodegradable urn made from coconut shell, compacted peat and cellulose. Inside there’s your remains and the seed of a tree.

It can be planted and then the seed germinates. You can even choose the type of plant you’d like to become, depending on your planting space.

In response, I’m proposing to my family that we buy a small plot of land in New England and plant our ‘death trees’ there. After several generations, we’ll have not only a beautiful forest, but a place for our descendants and others to visit that will remind them of us and the beauty that exists in the world. Sure beats an overcrowded, impersonal cemetery.

(Legalese: the Bios Urn is a patented design of Estudimoline, the design company of Gerard Moline, a Catalan artist and product designer who designed Bio Urn for animals in 1999. http://patentados.com/invento/urna-biodegradable.html)